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THE 



CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA 



WM. H. RUSSELL, LL.D., 



Special Correspondent of tlie London Times. 



BOSTON: 
LDNER A. FULLER, 112 WASHINGTON STREET. 

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THE 



CIVIL WAE 



IN 



AM ERICA: 



BY 

WM. h!" RUSSELL, LL.D., 

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE 
L02SriD03Sr. TIIMIES- 



BOSTON: 
QARDNER A. FULLER 

No. 112 Washington Street. 



•ox, 

THE MOBEHN AGE 



In presenting the first number of the Modern Age to the public , I 
have selected the letters of Mr. Russell, deeming them the most appro- 
priate topic for the times, and worthy of an extensive circulation. 

That these letters are written by the most interesting correspondent 
of the largest, ablest, and most influential paper in the world, is suffi- 
cient proof of their merits, and that they come to us " well recom- 
mended and properly vouched for." 

The universal " desire for more light ' ' in regard to affairs in the 
South, will find abundant satisfaction in this brilliant and talented 
correspondence of a writer, whose chirographical experience in the 
Crimean war, has so eminently fitted him " to render a fair and im- 
partial account " of the Civil War in America. 

Number two of the Modern Age will contain another serial of Mr. 
Russell's letters, at the close of which I shall introduce popular Orations 
and occasional Sermons from our most eminent Divines. The princi- 
^pa^^desijn of^thiacworKis to pi^e^etve^n the most convenient form the 
best thoughts, fresh from the lips of our most gifted men : its peculiar 
cOl^aiact^icT^ifi '^^ete^ta'regular' Won thly public yet I hope to 

be able from the many reports, to' elect twelve in the course of a year. 
No pains will be spared in my endeavors to make it the best and most 
attractive work of its kind in the country, and I trust it will meet 
with much favor at the hands of a generous public. 

G. A. FULLER. 



THE 

CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



LETTER I. 

Washington, March 29, 1861. 

If the intelligent foreigner, who is supposed to make so 
many interesting and novel observations on the aspect of 
th3 countries he visits, and on the manners of the people 
among whom he travels, were to visit the United States at 
this juncture, he would fail to detect any marked indication 
of the extraordinary crisis which agitates the members of 
the Great Republic, either at the principal emporium of its 
commerce, or at the city which. claims to be the sole seat of 
its Government. Accustomed to the manifestation of violent 
animosity and great excitement among the nations of Eu- 
rope during political convulsions, he would be struck with 
astonishment, if not moved to doubt, when, casting his eyes 
on the columns of the multitudinous journals which swarm 
from every printing-press in the land, he read that the 
United States were in such throes of mortal agony, that 
those who knew the constitution of the patient best, were 
scarce able to prophesy any result except final dissolution. 
It would require such special acquaintance as only those 
well versed in the various signs and forms of the dangerous 
influences which are at work can possess, to appreciate froin 
anything to be seen at New York or Washington, the faC 
that the vast body politic which sprang forth with the thew. 
and sinews of a giant from the womb of rebellion and revolu- 
tion ; which claimed half the New World as its heritage, and 
'•ved the other as the certain reward of future victory ; 
^'^ed its commerce over every sea, and affronted the 
^^ional law by bold innovations and defian 
■^'•rnles; which seemed to revel 



4 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

success of doctrines that the experience of the Old World 
had proved to be untenable, or had rejected as-unsuited to 
the government of mankind ; which had developed all the 
resources of the physical agencies in manufactures, machin- 
ery, electricity, and steam, that could give strength, and 
wealth, and vigor to its frame ; — that this mighty Confed- 
eration should suddenly be smitten with a desire to tear 
its limbs asunder, and was only restrained by the palsy 
that had smitten some of its members. Certainly no notion 
of the kind could be formed from actual observation of the 
words and deeds of men in the cities I have visited, or from 
any source of information, except the casual conversations 
of fellow travellers, or the startling headings in the news- 
papers, which have, however, reduced " sensation " para- 
graphs and lines to such cvery-day routine, that the Ameri- 
can is no more affected by them than the workman in the 
proof-house is moved by the constant explosion of cannon. 
We are accustomed to think the Americans a very excitable 
people ; their personal conflicts, their rapid transitions of 
feeling, the accounts of their public demonstrations, their 
energetic expressions, their love of popular assemblies, and 
the cultivation of the arts, which excite their passions, are 
favorable to that notion. But New York seems full of 
divine calm and human phlegm. A panic in Wall Street 
would, doubtless, create greater external disturbance than 
seemed to me to exist in its streets and pleasant mansions. 
No doubt there is, and must be, very great agitation of 
feeling, and much apprehension ; but to the stranger they 
are not very patent or visible. An elegant refinement, 
which almost assumes the airs of pococuranteism, reigns in 
society, only broken by the vehement voices of female 
patriotism, or the denunciations addressed against the pro- 
visions of a tariff, which New York seems unanimous in 
regarding with hostility and dismay. If Rome be burning, 
there are hundreds of noble Romans fiddling away in the 
F.fth Avenue, and in its dependencies, quite satisfied that 
"^ey cannot join any of the fire companies, and that they 
,.'e not responsible for the deeds of the " Nero " or " anti- 
^ero " who applied the torch. They marry, and are given 
n marriage ; they attend their favorite theatres, dramatic 
or devotional, as the case may be, in the very best coat" 
bonnets ; they eat the largest oysters, drink the ^ 
nd enjoy the many goods the gods provi'^" 
the daily announcement that Fo^' 



THE CIYIL WAH IN AMERICA. O 

that the South is arming, and the Morrill tariff is ruining 
the trade of the country. And, as they say, " What can 
we do ? " " We are," they insinuate, *' powerless to avert 
the march of events. We think everybody is wrong. Things 
were going on very pleasantly when these Abolitionists dis- 
turbed the course of trade, and commerce, and speculation 
with their furious fantasies; and. now the South, availing 
themselves of the opportunity which the blindness of their 
enemies has afforded them to do what they have wished in 
their hearts for many a year, start in business for them- 
selves, and will not be readily brought back by the lure of 
any concession till they find they are unable to get money 
to pay their way, and resort to measures which may be 
ruinous to capital, or lead to reconstruction of the Con- 
federation on both sides." 

If, pursuing the researches which such remarks suggest, 
an investigation is made in the same stratum of thought by 
careful exploration, it will not be long before the miner 
comes upon matters which he never could have expected to 
find in that particular gallery. What are the most cherished 
institutions of the Great Republic ? If the intelligent 
foreigner were asked what were the fundamental principles 
which, guaranteed by, and guaranteeing, their Constitution, 
the people of the United States admired the most, he would 
probably reply, " Universal suffrage (with its incidental 
exercise of vote by ballot), free citizenship, a free press." 
Probably he would answer correctly in the main, for he 
would know more, of the matter than I do ; but if he visited 
New York for a few days, what would be his amazement to 
see his best friends shake their heads at the very mention of 
these grand Shibboleths ! How would his faith be disturbed 
when he learnt from some merchant prince that universal 
suffrage, in its practical working in that city, had handed over 
the municipal government to the most ignorant, if not the 
most unprincipled men ; that it flooded and submerged the 
landmarks of respectability and station by a tide of bar- 
barous immigrant foreigners ; that the press had substituted 
licentiousness for liberty ; and that the evils done in New 
York by these agencies afflicted the whole State ! Ingenious 
theorists might attempt to convince him that the effect of 
these mischievous elements had been felt at the very centre 
of the social system, and had led to the separation which, 
be it temporary or permanent, all Northern Americans de- 
plore. Few, however, would admit that the failure of 
1* 



I 



6 THE CIYIL WAK IN AMERICA. 

Republican institutions is by any means involved in the 
disasters which have fallen on the Commonwealth, even 
when they freely confess that they desire to modify the 
Constitution, while they lament the impossibility of doing 
so in consequence of the very condition of things it has 
created. It is my firm conviction, forced on my mind by 
the words of many men of note with whom I have spoken, 
that they would gladly, if they could, place some limits to 
their own liberties as far as their fellow-men are concerned, 
and that they begin to doubt whether a Constitution founded 
on abstract principles of the equality of mankind can be 
. worked out in huge cities — veritable cloaccB gentium — 
however successful it was in the earlier days of th« Republic, 
and as it is in the sparsely inhabited rural districts where 
every inhabitant represents property. These men may be 
a small minority, but they certainly represent great wealth, 
much ability, and high intelligence in the State of which I 
speak. They assert there is no recuperative power in the 
Constitution. The sick physician cannot heal himself, for 
he has caused his own illness, and a Convention, the great 
nostrum of the fathers of the Republic, is only an appeal 
from Philip drunk to Philip mad. " Volumus leges Americce, 
niufari,'' is their despairing aspiration, and they justify the 
wish by contrasts between the state of things which existed 
when the Constitution was prepared for the thirteen Con- 
federated States and that which prevails at the present time, 
when thirty-four States, some two or three of which are 
equal to the original Republic, and many of which declare 
they are absolute sovereignties ; which have absorbed all 
the nomads of the Old World, with a fair proportion of 
Genghis Khans, Attilas, and Timours in embryo, present a 
spectacle which the most sagacious of the framers of the 
original compact never could have imagined. They are 
impatient of the ills they have, and are somewhat indiffer- 
ent to the wondrous and magnificent results in material 
prosperity and intellectual development which the old sys- 
tem either promoted or caused. New York, however, would 
do anything rather than fight ; her delight is to eat her 
bread and honey, and count her dollars, in peace. The 
vigorous, determined hostility of the South to her commer- 
cial eminence, is met by a sort of maudlin sympathy without 
any action, or intention to act. The only matter in which 
the great commercial aristocracy take any interest is ..the 
Morrill tariff, which threatens to inflict on them the most 



THE CIYIL WAK IN AMERICA. / 

serious losses and calamity. There is a general expectation 
that an extra Session of Congress will be called to amend 
the obnoxious measure ; and it is asserted that the necessity 
for such a Session is imperious ;. but, so far as I can judge, 
all such hopes will be disappointed. There is no desire at 
Washington to complicate matters by stormy debates, and 
the statesmen so recently elevated to power are sufficiently 
well read in general and in national history to know that 
extraordinary Parliaments are generally the executioners of 
those w^ho call them. The representatives of the great 
protected interests at the capital deny that the tariff will 
have the injurious effects attributed to it, or that it augments 
to any very grievous extent the burdens of the New Yorkers 
or of the foreign -manufacturers. Even if it does, they de- 
clare that protection is necessary. The ingenious proposals 
to evade the operation of the tariff by a jugglery of cargoes 
between the Southern and Northern ports will, they say, be 
frustrated by the more rigid application of the Revenue 
and Customs' system, out of which most serious complica- 
tions must inevitably arise at no distant period. While at 
New York all is calm doubtfulness or indolent anticipation, 
at Washington thexe is excitement and activity. The aris- 
tocracy of New York has yielded itself unresistingly to a 
tyranny it hates ; it cannot wield at will the fierce democ- 
racy, and it abandons all efforts to control it, forgetting the 
abundant proofs in every history of the power of genius, 
wealth, and superior intelligence to control the heavier 
masses, however wild and difficult of approach. 

At Washington there is at this moment such a ferment as 
no other part of the world could exhibit — a spectacle which 
makes one wonder tliat any man can be induced to seek for 
office, or that any Government can be conducted under such 
a system. The storm which rolled over the capital has, I 
am told, subsided ; but the stranger, unaccustomed to such 
tempestuous zones, thinks the gale is quite strong enough 
even in its diminished intensity. All the hotels are full of 
keen gray-eyed men, who fondly believe their destiny is to 
fill for four years some pet appointment under Government. 
The streets are crowded with them ; the steamers and the 
railway carriages, the public departments, the steps of the 
senators' dwellings, the lobbies of houses, the President's 
mansion, are crowded with them. From all parts of the 
vast Union, not even excepting the South, they have come 
fast as steam or wind and waves could bear them to concen- 



8 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

trate in one focus on the devoted head of the President all 
the myriad influences which, by letter, testimonial, personal 
application, unceasing canvass, and sleepless solicitation, 
they can collect together. 

Willard's Hotel, a huge caravanserai, is a curious study 
of character and institutions. Every form of speech and 
every accent under which the English tongue can be recog- 
nized, rings through the long corridors in tones of expostula- 
tion, anger, or gratification. Crowds of long-limbed, nerv- 
ous, eager-looking men, in loose black garments, undulating 
shirt collars, vast conceptions in hatting and boc)ting, angu- 
lar with documents and pregnant with demand, throng every 
avenue, in spite of the printed notices directing them "to 
move on from front of the cigar-stand." They are " sena- 
tor hunters," and every senator has a c/ientelle more numer- 
ous than the most popular young Roman noble Avho ever 
sauntered down the Via Sacra. If one of them ventures 
out of cover, the cry is raised, and he is immediately run 
to earth. The printing-presses are busy with endless copies 
of testimonials, which are hurled at everybody with reckless 
profusion. 

The writing-room of the hotel is full of people preparing 
statements or writing for " more testimonials," demanding 
more places, or submitting " extra certificates." The bar- 
room is full of people inspiring themselves with fresh confi- 
dence, or engaged in plots to surprise some place- or find 
one out ; and the ladies who are connected with members 
of the party in power find themselves the centres of irresist- 
ible attraction. " Sir," said a gentleman to whom I had 
letters of introduction, " I know you must be a stranger, 
because you did not stop me to present these letters in the 
street." 

At the head of the list of persecuted men is the President 
himself. Every one has a right to walk into the White 
House, which is the President's private as well as his official 
residence. Mr. Lincoln is actuated by the highest motives 
in the distribution of office. All the vast patronage of tens 
of thousands of places, from the highest to the lowest, is 
his ; and, instead of submitting the various claims to the 
heads of departments, the President seeks to investigate 
them, and to see all the candidates. Even his iron frame 
and robust constitution are affected by the process, which 
lasts all day, and is not over in the night or in the morning. 
The particular formula which he has adopted to show the 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. » 

impossibility of satisfying everybody is by no means accepted 
by anybody who is disappointed. What is the use of tell- 
ing a man he can't have a place because a hundred others 
are asking for it, if that man thinks he is the only one who 
has a right to get it ? 

At the very moment when the President and his Cabinet 
should be left undisturbed to deal with the tremendous 
questions which have arisen for their action, the roar of 
office seekers dins every sense, and almost annihilates them. 
The Senate, which is now sitting merely to confirm appoint- 
ments, relieving the monotony of executive reviews with 
odd skirmishes between old political antagonists now and 
then, will, it is said, rise this week. Around their chamber 
is the ever-recurring question heard, " Who has got what? " 
and the answer is never satisfactory to all. This hunting 
after office, which destroys self-respect when it is the mov- 
ing motive of any considerable section of a great party, is 
an innovation which was introduced by General Jackson ; 
but it is likely to be as permanent as the Republic, inasmuch 
as no candidate dares declare his intention of reverting to 
the old system. These "spoils," as they are called, are now 
being distributed by two Governments — the de jure and 
de facto Government of Washington, and the Government 
erected by the Southern States at Montgomery. 

It is difficult for one who has arrived so recently in this 
country, and who has been subjected to such a variety of 
statements to come to any very definite conclusion in refer- 
ence to the great questions which agitate it. But as far as 
I can I shall form my opinions from what I see, and not 
from what I hear ; and as I shall proceed South in a few 
days, there is a probability of my being able to ascertain 
what is, the real state of afiairs in that direction. As far as 
I can judge — my conclusion, let it be understood, being 
drawn from the prevailing opinions of others — " the South 
will never go back into the Union." On the same day I 
heard a gentleman of position among the Southern party- 
say, " No concession, no compromise, nothing that can be 
done or suggested, shall induce us to join any Confederation 
of which the New England States are members ; " and by 
another gentleman, well known as one of the ablest of. the 
Abolitionists, I was told, " If I could bring back the South- 
ern States by holding up my little finger, I should consider 
it criminal to do so." The friends of the Union sometimes 
endeavor to disguise their sorrow and their humiliation at 



10 THE CIVIL WAE IN AMERICA. 

the prospect presented by the Great Republic under the 
garb of pride in the peculiar excellence of institutions which 
have permitted such a revolution as Secession without the 
loss of one drop of blood. But concession averts bloodshed. 
If I give up my purse to the footpad who presents a pistol 
at my head I satisfy all his demands, and he must be a 
sanguinary miscreant if he pulls trigger afterwards. The 
policeman has, surely, no business to boast of the peculiar 
excellence, in such a transaction, of the state of things 
which allows the transfer to take place without bloodshed. 
A government may be so elastic as, like an overstretched 
india-rubber band, to have no compressive force whatever ; 
and that very quality is claimed for the Federal Government 
as excellence by some eminent men whom I have met, and 
who maintained the thesis, that the United States Govern- 
ment has no right whatever to assert its authority by force 
over the people of any State whatever ; that, based on the 
consent of all, it ceases to exist whenever there is dissent, — 
a doctrine which no one need analyze who understands what 
are the real uses and ends of Government. The friends of 
the existing administration, on the whole, regard the Seces- 
sion as a temporary aberration, which a " masterly inactiv- 
ity," the effects of time, inherent weakness, and a strong 
reaction, of which, they flatter themselves, they see many 
proofs in the Southern States, will correct. " Let us," they 
say, " deal with this matter in our own way. Do not inter- 
fere. A recognition of the Secession would be an inter- 
ference amounting to hostility. In good time the violent 
men down South will come to their senses, and the treason 
will die out." They ignore the difficulties which European 
States may feel in refusing to recognize the principles on 
which the United States were founded when they find them 
embodied in a new Confederation, which, so far as we know, 
may be to all intents and purposes constituted in an entire 
independence, and present itself to the world with claims to 
recognition to which England, at least, having regard to 
precedents of de facto Governments, could only present an 
illogical refusal. The hopes of other sections of the North- 
erners are founded on the want of capital in the Slave States ; 
on the pressure which will come upon them when they have 
to guard their own frontiers against the wild tribes who have 
been hitherto repelled at the expense of the whole Union by 
the Federal troops ; on the exigencies of trade, which will 
compel them to deal with the North, and thereby to enter 



THE CIYIL WAK IN AMERICA. 11 

into friendly relations and ultimate re-alliance. But most 
impartial people, at least in New York, are of opinion that 
the South has shaken the dust off her feet, and will never 
enter the portals of the Union again. She is confident in 
her own destiny. She feels strong enough to stand alone. 
She believes her mission is one of extension and conquest 
— her leaders are men of singular political ability and un- 
daunted resolution. She has b^t to stretch forth her hand, 
as she believes, and the Gulf becomes an American lake 
closed by Cuba. The reality of these visions the South is 
ready to test, and she would not now forego the trial, which 
may, indeed, be the work of years, but which she will cer- 
tainly make. All the considerations which can be urged 
against her resolves are as nothing in the way of her pas- 
sionate will, and the world may soon see under its eyes the 
conflict of two republics founded on the same principles, but 
subjected to influences that produce repulsion as great as 
exists in two bodies charged with the same electricity. If 
ever the explosion come it will be tremendous in its results, 
and distant Europe must feel the shock. 

The authorities seem resolved to make a. stand at Fort 
Pickens, notwithstanding the advice of Mr. Douglass to give 
it up. They regard it as an important Federal fortress, as 
indisputably essential for national purposes as Tortugas or 
Key West. Although United States property has been 
" occupied," the store vessels of the State seized, and the 
sovereignty of the seceding States successfully asserted by 
the appropriation of arsenals, and money, and war materials, 
on the part of the local authorities, the Government of 
Washington are content by non-recognition to reserve their 
own rights in face of the exercise oi force majeure. 

The Chevalier Bertinnati, who has been Charge d'Afi'aires 
for the Government of King Victor Emmanuel, has been 
raised to the' rank of Minister, and in that capacity deliv- 
ered his letters of credence to'the President on Wednesday. 
The letter addressed to the President by the King of Pied- 
mont was couched in terms of much friendliness and sym- 
pathy, and Mr. Lincoln's reply was equally warm. There 
is no display of military preparation to meet the eye either 
at Washington or along the road to it. General Scott, who 
was to have dined at the President's Cabinet dinner last 
night, and who was actually in the White House for that 
purpose, was compelled to leave by indisposition. Any 
attempt to relieve Fort Sumter would unquestionably be 



12 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

attended with great loss of life ; but most Americans readily 
admit that if tliey had a foreign force to deal with, no con- 
sideration of that kind would stay the hands of the Govern- 
ment. The fort stands on a sand-bank in shallow water, and 
batteries have been cast up on both shores effectually com- 
manding the whole of the channels for several miles. The 
military activity and enterprise — I hear the skill as well — 
of the South have been displayed in the readiness and com- 
pleteness of their preparations. In Galveston, Texas, Gov- 
ernor Houston, who has resigned, or been deposed, protests, 
it is said, against the acts of the new Government, and is 
likely to give them trouble. The telegraph will, however, 
anticipate any news of this sort which I can send you, though 
its intelligence should be received with many grains of salt. 
Some people assert that " the telegraph has caused the Se- 
cession," and there is a strong feeling that some restrictions 
should be placed upon the misuse of it in disseminating 
false reports. 



LETTER II. 

Washington, April 1, 1861. 

From all I have seen and heard, my belief is that the 
Southern States have gone from the Union, if not forever, 
at least for such time as will secure for their Government 
an absolute independence till it be terminated by war, or, 
if their opponents be right, by the certain processes of in- 
ternal decay arising from inherent vices in their system, 
faulty organization, and want of population, vigor, and 
wealth. That the causes which have led to their secession 
now agitate the Border States most powerfully with a ten- 
dency to follow them is not to be denied by those who watch 
the course of events, and as these powerful neutrals oscillate 
to and fro, under the pressure of contending parties and pas- 
sions, the Government at Washington and the authorities of 
the revolting States regard every motion with anxiety ; the 
former fearful lest by word or deed they may repel them 
forever, the latter more disposed by active demonstrations 
to determine the ultimate decision in their own favor, and 



THE CIVIL WAE IN AMERICA. 13 

to attach them permanently to the Slave States by resolute 
declarations of principle. Whatever the results of the Mor- 
rill tariff may be, it is probable they must be endured on 
both sides of the Atlantic, for there is no power in the 
Government or in the President, as I understand, to modify 
its provisions, and there is a strong feeling in Mr. Lincoln's 
Cabinet against the extra session, so loudly demanded in 
New York, and so confidently expected in some parts of 
the Union. Nothing but some overwhelming State neces- 
sity will overcome that opposition, and, as the magnitude 
of such an occasion will have to be estimated by those who 
are vehemently opposed to an extra Congress, it is not 
likely that anything can occur which will be considered of 
sufficient gravity by the Government at Washington to in- 
duce them to encounter the difficulties and dangers they 
anticipate in consequence of the convocation of an extra- 
ordinary assemblage of both Houses. Until next December, 
then, in all probability, the President and his Cabinet will 
have such control of affairs as is possible in the system of 
this Government, or in the circumstances, together with the 
far more than coordinate responsibility attached to their 
position as a Federal Government. It is scarcely possible 
for an Englishman, far less for the native of any State pos- 
sessing a powerful Executive, to comprehend the limits 
which are assigned to, the powers of the State in tbis country, 
or to the extent to which resistance to its authority can be 
carried by the action of the States supposed to be consent- 
ing parties to its Constitution and supporters of its juris- 
diction. Take, for instance, what is occurring within a few 
miles of the seat of the Central Government, across the 
Potomac. At a certain iron-foundery guns have been cast 
for the United States Government, which are about to be 
removed to Fort Monroe, in the State of Virginia, ^ne of 
the fortresses for the defence of the United States. The 
Legislature of Virginia sat all night last Saturday, and 
authorized the Governor of that State to call out the public 
guard in order to prevent by force, if necessary, the removal 
of those guns, at the same time offering to the contractor 
the price which he was to have received for them from the 
Federal Government. Again, at Mobile, where a writ of 
habeas corpus is sued out on behalf of the master of a 
vessel, who was seized because he had a cargo of small 
stores which he intended to sell to the United States men- 
of-war on observation off Pensacola, the counsel for the 
2 



14 THE CIYIL* WAK IN AMEKICA. 

State of Florida resists the application on the ground that 
the prisoner was carrying supplies to an enemy, and that a 
state of war exists in consequence of the acts of the Federal 
Government ; and the Court, without deciding on the point, 
discharge the prisoner, in order that it may be freed from 
responsibility. On the other hand, the Federal Government 
remits the penalties of forfeiture and fines on the vessel 
seized by the Custom House at New York for want of proper 
clearances from Southern ports. The stereotype plates with 
the words " Evacuation of Fort Sumter " have apparently 
been worn out, but it is believed on all sides that it will be 
abandoned by Major Anderson this week, although I heard 
a member of the Cabinet declare last week that no orders 
had been issued to that officer to evacuate it. If the opin- 
ions of some of the Northern people prevailed, the fort 
would be retained until it was taken by assault. The 
Southern Confederation, secure of Fort Sumter, are now 
preparing for active operations against Fort Pickens, which 
protects the entrance to the quondam United States Navy 
Yard at Pensacola, now in the possession of the troops of 
Florida ; and certain organs of the extreme party in the 
South have already demanded that the forts at Tortugas 
and Key West, which are situated far out at sea from the 
coast, should be surrendered. 

The Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln is understood to contain the 
representatives of three different courses of policy — that 
trinity of action which generally produces torpid and uncer- 
tain motion or complete rest. First, there are those who 
would, at any risk, vindicate the rights they claim for the 
Federal Government, and use force, even though it could 
only, in its most successful application, overrun the States 
of the South, and compel a temporary submission, without 
leading to the reestablishment of Federal authority, or the 
reincorporation of the States with the Union. Secondly, 
there are those, men of intellect and capacity, who, dis- 
senting altogether from the doctrines propounded by the 
leaders of the revolution, and convinced that the separation 
will not be permanent, see the surest and safest mode of 
action in the total abstinence from all aggressive assertion 
of rights, and in a policy of laissez oiler of indeterminate 
longitude and latitude. These statesmen believe that, like 
most revolutions, the secession is the work of the minority, 
and that a strong party of reaction exists, which will come 
to the front by and by, " expel the traitors," and return 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



i\ 



triumphantly with their repentant States into the bosom of 
the Union. The gentlemen who hold these views have 
either a more accurate knowledge than the public, are 
better read in the signs of the times, or have more faith in 
the efficacy of inaction on the love of Americans for the 
Union, than is possessed by most of the outer world. The 
third party is formed of those who are inclined to take the 
South at their word; to cut the cord at once, believing that 
the loss would be a gain, and that the Southern Confedera- 
tion would inflict on itself a most signal retribution for 
what they consider as th3 crime of breaking up the Union. 
Practically, so far as I have gone, I have failed to meet 
many people who really exhibited any passionate attach- 
ment to the Union for its own sake, or who pretended to 
be animated by any strong feelings of regard or admiration 
for the Government of the United States in itself. The 
word '■ Constitution " is forever ringing in one's ears, its 
" principles " and its authority are continually appealed to, 
but the end is no nearer. The other day I bought the 
whole Constitution of the United States, neatly printed, for 
three halfpence. But the only conclusion I could draw was, 
that it was better for States not to have Constitutions which 
could be bought at such very moderate prices. It is rather 
an inopportune moment for the Professor of the Harvard Law 
School to send forth his lecture on the Constitution of the 
United States, and on the differences between it and that of 
Great Britain. Just as the learned gentleman is glorying 
in the supremacy of the Judicial body of the United States 
over Congress, Presidents, and Legislatures, the course of 
events exhibits that Supreme Court as a mere nullity in the 
body politic, unable to take cognizance, or unwilling to act 
in regard to matters which are tearing the Constitution into 
atoms. No one thinks of appealing to it, or invoking its 
decision. And, after all, if the Court were to decide, what 
would be the use of its judgment, if one or other of the 
two great parties resisted it ? The ultima ratio would be 
the only means by which the decision could be enforced. 
In the very midst of the hymns which are offered up around 
the shrines of the Constitution, whether old or mended, all 
celebrating the powers of the great priestess of the mys- 
teries, there are heretic voices to be heard, which, in addition 
to other matters, deny that the Supreme Court was ever in- 
tended by the Constitution to exercise the sole and signal 
right of interpreting the Constitution, that it is competent 



16 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

to do so, or that it would be safe to give it the power. Its 
powers are judicial, not political, and Mr. Calhoun on that 
very point said : 

" Let it never be forgotten, that if we should absurdly attribute to 
the Supreme Court the exclusive right of construing the Constitution, 
there would be, in fact, between the sovereign and subject under such 
a Government no Constitution, or at least nothing deserving the 
name, or serving the legitimate object of so sacred an instrument." 

The argument revolves in a circle ; it ends nowhere, and 
there seems no solution except such as concession or a 
sword cut may give. 

There are at present in Washington two of the three un- 
recognized Ministers Plenipotentiary of the Southern Gov- 
ernment, Mr. Roman and Mr. Crawford. Judging from 
the tone of these gentlemen, all idea of returning to the 
Union, under any circumstances whatever, has been utterly 
abandoned. Mr. Forsyth, the third of the Commissioners, 
who is at present engaged in adjusting certain business of a 
very important character at New York, is expected back in 
a few days, and it will then be seen whether the Commis- 
sioners consent to walk up and down in the salles des pas 
perdus any longer. They are armed with full powers on 
all questions which can come up for settlement. The Gov- 
ernment has refused to receive them, or to take any official 
notice of them whatever ; but there is reason to believe that 
certain propositions and negotiations have been laid before 
Mr. Seward in a private and unofficial manner, to which no 
reply of a definite character has been given. Before this 
letter reaches you, Mr. Yancey, Mr. Mann, and Mr. Rort 
will have arrived in Europe to try the temper of the Govern- 
ments of England and France in reference to the recognition 
of the Southern States. Both parties have been somewhat 
startled by the intelligence of an active movement of Spain 
to gain political ascendancy in St. Domingo ; and the news 
that France and England are sending a combined fleet to 
these shores, though coming in a very questionable shape, 
has excited uneasy feeling and some recrimination. 

If the Congress is reassembled, there is much reason to 
fear an open rupture ; if not, another solution may be ar- 
rived at. It is unfortunate for the Government that General 
Scott is suffering at this moment from the infirmities of age, 
and the effect of the great demands made upon his strength. 
Mr. Lincoln gave a dinner to his Cabinet on Thursday last, 
the Irst of the season, in honor principally of General Scott ; 



THE CIVIIi WAR IN AMERICA. 17 

but the veteran General, who had entered the White House, 
was obliged to leave before dinner was served. There has 
been a great emigration of candidates and office-hunters 
from this since I last wrote, some contented, many more 
grumbling. It is asserted that there never has been such a 
clean sweep of office-holders since the practice was intro- 
duced by General Jackson. If I am rightly informed, the 
President has the patronage of one hundred and forty thou- 
sand places, great and small — some very small. 

Night. — The influence of England and of France on 
the destinies of the Republic is greater than any American 
patriot would like to admit. It must not be expected, 
therefore, that there will be any proof of excessive anxiety 
affi^rded by the leaders of either party in reference to the 
course which may be taken by the European Governments 
in the present crisis ; but it is not the less to be appre- 
hended, that an immediate recognition of the confederated 
independence of the South, or of the doctrine of absolute 
individual sovereignty on the part of those States, may 
precipitate the hostile action which, in the event of absolute 
final separation, seems to be inevitable. To the North it 
would be a heavy blow and great discouragement, the con- 
sequences of which could only be averted by some very 
violent remedies. Separation without war is scarcely to be 
expected. The establishment of an independent Republic 
in the South may, indeed, be effected peaceably ; but it is 
not, humanly speaking, within the limits of any probability ' 
that the diverse questions which will arise out of conflicting 
interests in regard to revenue and State and Federal rights 
can be settled without an appeal to arms. At the present 
minute there is nothing to induce a stranger to believe that 
an efl'ectual resistance could be offered to a vigorous aggres- 
sive movement from the South, supposing the means to 
make it existed either in the adhesion or permission of the 
Border States. The North, however, is strong in its popu- 
lation, in its wealth, and in its calm. In the hands of the 
Border States are all the arbitraments of revolution or union, 
of war or peace. By an unmeaning euphemism the revolu- 
tion of the South has been called Secession ; but the con- 
fusion and mischief caused by the euphemistic timidity of 
statesmen disappear, when the acts of the South are tested 
by the standard applicable to revolutionary crises ; and by 
that standard alone are those acts intelligible and coherent. 
Measured in that way, the seizure of property, the deeds 



18 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

and the language of the leaders of the movement, and the 
acts of the masses, can be properly estimated. Mr. Douglass, 
whose mental capacity is a splendid justification of his 
enormous political activity, and of a high political rank — 
unattached — is understood to be engaged on a vast system 
for establishing duties all over the Noith American conti- 
nent in the nature of a ZoUverein. It is his opinion that 
the North, in case of separation, must fight the South on 
the arena of free trade ; that the tariff must be completely 
altered ; and that the duties must be lowered from point to 
point, in proportion as the South bids against the North for 
the commerce of Europe, till the reduction reaches such a 
point that the South, forced to raise revenue for the actual 
expenses of Government, and unable to struggle against the 
superior wealth of the North in such a contest, is obliged 
to come to an understanding with its powerful competitor, 
and to submit to a treaty of commerce which shall include 
all the States of the North American continent, from the 
Isthmus of Panama to the ice of the Arctic Seas. The 
Canadas are, of course, included in such a project ; indeed, 
it is difficult to say where the means of escaping from their 
present embarrassment will not be sought by the leading 
statesmen of America. But on one point all are agreed. 
Whatever may happen, the North will insist on a Free 
Mississippi. It is the very current of life for the trade of 
myriads of people hundreds of miles from New Orleans, 
^f Louisiana, either as sovereign State or representative 
agent of the Southern Confederation, attempts to control 
the navigation of that river, we shall see a most terrible and 
ruinous war. Let England look to the contingencies. 

April 5. — One month and one day have elapsed since 
Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet were installed at Washington. 
Long previous to their accession to power or rather to office, 
the revolution of the South had assumed the aspect of an 
independent Government. When the new Administration 
tried to direct the horses' heads, they found the reins were 
cut, and all they could do was to sit on the State coach, and 
take their chance of falling in a soft place, or of the fiery 
steeds coming to a standstill from exhaustion. A month 
ago and the State Treasury was nearly exhausted ; only 
some £370,000 was forthcoming to meet demands and re- 
- quirements four times as large. The navy was scattered all 
over the world at stations by no means readily accessible, 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA. 19 

the army posted along frontier lines, between which and the 
Northern States was interposed the expanse of the Southern 
Confederation ; the officers disaffected to the Government, 
or at all events so well affected to their individual sovereign 
States as to feel indisposed to serve the United States ; the 
whole machinery of Government in the hands of the revo- 
lutionary leaders, every trace of Federal existence erased in 
the South, wiped away by acts which, unless justified by suc- 
cessful revolt, would be called treasonable, or by force or 
stratagem, and only two forts held on the seaboard, weekly 
garrisoned, and unhappily situated with reference to opera- 
tions of relief. In addition to these sources of weakness, 
came the confusion and apprehension caused by divided 
counsels, want of cohesion, the disorders of a violent nation- 
al contest, mistrust of adequate support, and above all the 
imperious necessities of the place-seekers, whose importunate 
requisitions distracted the attention of the Government from 
the more important business which presented itself for ad- 
justment. It was, of course, necessary to fill the posts 
which were occupied by enemies with men devoted to the 
interests of a Government which could little brook any in- 
difference or treacherous tendencies on the part of its subor- 
dinates. But had the Adminstration been as strong in all 
respects as any United States Government ever could or can 
hope to be, in reference to such emergencies as the present, 
it really could have done little except precipitate a civil war, 
in which the Border States would have arranged themselves 
by the side of the Cotton States. A considerable portion of 
the North would have been hostile to coercion, and the 
theories which have been propounded with much apparent 
approbation respecting the actual uses of Government, its 
powers and jurisdiction, show that European doctrines on 
such points are not at all accepted by statesmen, politicians 
and jurists in North America; Without the means of en- 
forcing an authority which many of its own adherents, and 
most of the neutral parties denied to it, Mr. Lincoln's Ad- 
ministration finds itself called upon to propound a policy 
and to proceed to vigorous action. The demand is scarcely 
reasonable. The policy of such men suddenly lifted to the 
head of affairs, which they cannot attempt to guide, must be 
to wait and watch, and their action must be simply tentative 
as they have no power to put forth with moderate hope of 
success any aggressive force. 

Be satisfied of this — tho United States Government will 



20 THE CITIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

give up no power or possession which it has at present got. 
By its voluntary act it will surrender nothing whatever. 
No matter what reports may appear in the papers or in let- 
ters, distrust them if they would lead you to believe that Mr. 
Linclon is preparing either to abandon what he has now, or 
to recover that which he has not. 

The United States Government is in an attitude of protest ; 
it cannot strike an offensive blow. But, if any attack is 
made upon it, the Government hopes that it will be strength- 
ened by the indignation of the North and West, to such 
an extent that it cannot only repel the aggression, but 
possibly give a stimulus to a great reaction in its favor! 

On these principles Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens are 
held. They are claimed as Federal fortresses. The Stars 
and Stripes still float over them. Whatever may be said to 
the contrary, they will remain there till they are removed by 
the action of the Confederate States. The Commissioners 
of Mr. Jefferson Davis's Government " have reason to say 
that if any attempt be made to throw reenforcements into 
Fort Pickens, unless they receive previous notice of it as 
promised, it will be a breach of good faith." From all I 
can learn, no intention of strengthening the fort is at present 
entertained ; but it may be doubted if the attempt would not 
be made should any favorable opportunity of doing so pre- 
sent itself. All " the movements of troops," of which you 
will see accounts, are preparations against — not for — 
aggression. At most they amount to the march of a few 
companies and guns to various forts, now all but undefend- 
ed. Fort Washington, of which I shall have a few words 
to say hereafter, was till lately held by a very inadequate 
force. As a member of the Cabinet said to me, " I could 
have taken it last week with a little whisky," that potent 
artillery being applied to the weak defences of the aged 
Irish artilleryman who constituted " the garrison." The 
" formidable military force concentrated in Washington," of 
which you may read in the American journals, consists of 
about 700 men of all arms, as far as I can see, and four brass 
field guns. There is a good deal of drumming, fifing, march- 
ing, and music going on daily. I look on and see a small 
band in gay uniforms, a small body of men in sombre uni- 
forms, varying from fifteen to thirty rank and file, armed, how- 
ever, with excellent rifles, and a very large standard, pass by ; 
and next day I read that such and such a company had a 
parade, and " attracted much admiration by their efficient 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 



21 



and soldierly appearance, and the manner in which, " &c. 
But these military companies have no intention of fighting 
for the Government. Their sympathies are quite undeter- 
mined. Formidable as they would be in skirmishing in the 
open country, they would be of comparatively little use 
against regular troops at the outset of the contest, as they 
have never learnt to act together, and do not aspire to form 
even battalions. But their existence indicates the strong 
military tendencies of the people, and the danger of doing 
anything which might turn them against the Government. 
Mr. Lincoln has no power to make war against the South : 
the Congress alone could give it to him ; and that is not 
likely to be given, because Congress will not be assembled 
before the usual time, unless under the pressure of and im- 
perious necessity. 

Why, then, hold these forts at all ? Why not give them 
up ? Why not withdraw the garrison, strike the flag, and 
cease to keep up a useless source of irritation in the midst 
of the Southern Confederation ? The answer to these 
questions is : T]»ese forts are Federal property. The 
Government does not acknowledge the existence of any 
right on the part of the people of the States to seize them 
as appertaining to individual States. The forts are protests 
against the acts of violence to which the Federal authority 
has yielded elsewhere. They are, moreover, the points 
d'appui, small as they are, on which the Federal Govern- 
ment can rest its resistance to the claims of the Southern 
Confederation to be acknowledged as an independent repub- 
lic. If they were surrendered without attack, or without 
the existence of any pressure arising from the refusal of the 
Southern authorities to permit them to get supplies, which 
is an act of war, the case of the United States Government 
would be, they consider, materially weakened. If it be 
observed that these forts have no strategic value, it may 
readily be replied that their political value is very great. 
But, serious as these considerations may be, or may be 
thought to be, with respect to foreign relations, there are in 
reference to domestic politics still more weighty inducements 
to hold them. The effect produced in the North and North- 
west by an attack on the forts while the United States flag 
is floating over them, would be as useful to the Government 
at Washington as the effect of abandoning the forts or tamely 
surrendering them would be hurtful to them in the estima- 
tion of the extreme Republicans. A desperate attack, a 



22 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



gallant defense, the shedding of the blood of gallant men, 
whose daty it was to defend that intrusted to their keeping, 
and who yielded only to numbers — the outrage on the 
United States flag — would create an excitement in the 
Union which the South, with all its determination and 
courage, is unwilling to provoke, but which the Government 
would be forced to use in its own service. Such an event 
must lead to war, a very terrible and merciless war, and both 
parties pause before they resort to that court of arms. Unless 
the Border States join the South, Mr. Jefferson Davis could 
scarcely hope to carry out the grand projects which are attribu- 
ted to his military genius of marching northward, and dictat- 
ing terms on their own soil to the Republicans. He could 
scarcely venture to leave the negro population unguarded in 
his rear, and his flanks menaced by the sea-born northerners 
on the one side, and by such operations as the water- sheds 
significantly indicate on the other. It is idle to speculate on 
the incidents of that which may never occur, and which, oc- 
curring, may assume the insignificant aspect of border skir- 
mishes, or the tremendous proportions of*i war of races and 
creeds, intensified by the worst elements of servile and civil 
conflict. The Government of Mr. Lincoln hope and believe 
that the contest may be averted. The Commissioners of the 
South are inclined to think, also, there will be a peaceful solu- 
tion, obtained, of course, by full concession and recognition. 
But inaction cannot last on the part of the South. Already 
they have begun the system of coercion. The supplies of the 
garrison at Sumter will be cut off henceforth, if they are 
not already forbidden. They do not fear the moral effect of 
this act, for some of their leading men actually believe that 
nothing can stop the progress of a movement which will, 
they fondly think, absorb all the other States of the Union, 
and leave the New England States to form an insignificant 
republic of its own, with a possible larger destiny in Canada. 
Their opponents in the North are as fully satisfied that the 
direst Nemesis will fall on the Montgomery Government in 
the utter ruin of all their States the moment they are left to 
themselves. 

The Government is elated at the success of the loan, and 
Mr. Chase has taken high ground in refusing offers made to 
him yesterday, and in resolving to issue Government securi- 
ties for the balance of the amount required to complete the 
amount. Mr. Forsyth, one of the Southern Commissioners, 
who has just returned from New York here, is equally satisfied 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 23 

witbi the temper of parties in that city, and seems to think that 
the New Yorkers are preparing for a secession. But, though 
States may be sovereign, it has never been ascertained that 
cities or portions of States are so, and in the western and 
northern portions of the State of New York there is a large 
agricultural population, which, with the aid of Government, 
would speedily suppress any attempt to secede on the part 
of the city, if men are to be believed who say they know 
the circumstances of the case. Virginia is claimed by both 
sides, but accounts this morning are to the effect that the 
Secessionists have been defeated on a division by a vote of 
two to one in favor of the Union ; and although General 
Houston appears to be forced to accept the situation for a 
time, there are many who think he will organize a strong 
reaction against the dominant Secessionists. 

Whatever may be these result of all the diverse actions, the 
Great Republic is gone ! The shape of the fragments is not 
yet determined any more than their fate. They may reunite, 
but the cohesion can never be perfect. The ship of the State 
was built of too many " platforms," there were too many 
officers on board, perhaps the principles of construction were 
erroneous, the rigid cast-iron old constitution guns burst 
violently when tried with new projectiles — any way, those 
who adhere with most devotion to the vessel, admit that it 
is parted right amidships, and that its prestige has vanished. 
The more desperate of these would gladly see an enemy, or 
go out of their way to find one, in the hope of a common 
bond of union being discovered in a common animosity and 
danger. 

The naval preparations, of which you will hear a good 
deal, are intended to make good existing deficiencies and to 
meet contingencies. At any other time the action of Spain 
in St. Domingo would create a cry for war. Now all the 
Federal Government can do is to demand and receive 
explanations. In reply to Mr. Seward's inquiries, the Span- 
ish Minister has possibly stated that the recent events in St. 
Domingo have been caused by the acts and threats of Hayti, 
which forced the Dominicans to call in the aid and claim the 
protection of Spain. There have been several attempts from , 
time to time to induce France to assume the dominion of its 
former possession, and it is not unlikely that an excellent 
understanding exists between the Court of Madrid and the 
Emperor Napoleon in reference to the subject. The report 
that the Mexicans have made, or contemplate making, an 
attack on Texas, is scarcely worthy of credence. 



24 THE CIYIIi WAR IN AMERICA. 

As to the Morrill tariff, I can only repeat wliat I liave 
already said. It must be borne till results show that it can- 
not be persisted in. Then only will it be repealed or modi- 
fied. The theory of the Government is, that the United 
States always takes far more from Europe than it can pay 
for. " If the revenue is collected, there is no ground for 
complaint. The English and French manufacturer will be 
satisfied, as well as the northern population. If the revenue 
is not collected, then the tarifi" must be repealed, and that 
will be done within the year, if the mischief is serious." 
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Manchester must make 
the best they can out of the doctrine. 



LETTER III. 

Washington, April 9, 1861. 
The critical position of the Federal Government has com- 
pelled its members to preserve secrecy. Never before under 
any Administration was so little of the councils of the 
Cabinet known to the public, or to those who are supposed 
to be acquainted with the opinions of the statesmen in 
office. Mr. Seward has issued the most stringent orders to 
the officers and clerks in his department to observe the 
rules, which heretofore have been much disregarded, in 
reference to the confidential character of State papers in 
their charge. The sources of the fountain of knowledge 
from which friendly journalists drew so freely are thus 
stopped without fear, favor, or afiection, toward any. The 
result has been much irritation in quarters where such 
" interference " is regarded as unwarrantable, or, at least, 
as very injurious. The newspapers which enjoyed the 
privilege of free access to despatches are hatching canards^ 
which they let fly along the telegraph wires with amazing 
productiveness and fertility of conception and incubation. 
Hence the monstrous and ridiculous rumors which harden 
into type everyday — hence the clamors for "a policy," 
and hence the contending accusations that the Government 
is doing nothing, and that it is also preparing to plunge the 
country into civil war. Each member of the Cabinet has 
become a Burleigh, every shake of whose head perplexes 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 25 

New York with a fear of change ; every Senator is watched 
by private reporters, who trace " the day's disasters in his 
morning's face." If a weak company of artillery is marched 
on board a ship, its movements are chronicled in columns 
of vivid description, and its footsteps are made to sound 
like the march of a vast army. The telegraph from Wash- 
ington has learnt its daily message about Fort Sumter and 
Fort Pickens by heart, and the world has been soothed 
daily by the assurance that General Braxton Bragg is ready, 
and that the South Carolinians can no longer be restrained. 
But there is always a secret understanding that Generals 
Bragg and Beauregard will be more ready still the next 
day, and that the people will be more unrestrainable by 
next telegram. When I landed in New York, the first 
news I learnt was that Fort Sumter would be evacuated 
next day ; and if not, that the supplies would be cut off, and 
that the garrison would be starved out. I have learnt how 
to distrust prophecy, and I am going South in the hope 
that the end is not yet. The Southern Commissioners state 
that the Government here has promised them that no efforts 
shall be made to reenforce Fort Pickens without previous 
notice to them — a very singular promise. The Govern- 
ment, ho-vever, denies that it has been in communication 
with them. Fbrt Sumter must be considered as gone, for 
there is no disposition, apparently, on the part of the Govern- 
ment to hazard the loss of life and great risk which must 
inevitably attend any attempt to relieve or carry ofi" the 
garrison, now that the channels are under the fire of numer- 
ous heavily armed batteries, which the people of South Car- 
olina were permitted to throw up without molestation. 
The operations of a relieving force would have to be con- 
ducted on a very large scale by troops disembarking on the 
shores and taking the batteries in reverse, in conjunction 
with an attack from the sea ; and, after all, such an expedi- 
tion would be futile, unless it were intended to occupy 
Charleston, and try the fortune of war in South Carolina — • 
an intention quite opposed to the expressions and, I be- 
lieve, the feelings of the Cabinet of Washington, not to 
speak of the people of the Border States and of large rem- 
nants of the Union. From your correspondent at New 
York you will receive full particulars of the movements of 
troops, and of the naval preparations which are reported in 
the papers, which create more curiosity than excitement 



26 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

among tlie people I meet. My task must be to describe 
what I see around me. 

It may be as well to state in the most positive terms 
that the reports which have appeared in the American papers 
of communications between the English Minister and the 
American Government on the subject of a blockade of the 
Southern ports, are totally and entirely destitute of founda- 
tion. No communication of any kind has passed between 
Lord Lyons, on the part of the English Government, and 
Mr. Seward, or any one else, on behalf of the Government 
at Washington. It would be a most offensive proceeding 
to volunteer any intimation of the course to be pursued by a 
European Power respecting a contingency of action on the 
part of the United States ; nor would it be necessary, in 
case a blockade were declared, to formulate a supererogatory 
notice that it must be such a blockade as the law of nations 
recognizes. The importance of a distinct understanding on 
that point is all the greater in connection with the stories 
which are afloat that the naval preparations of the hour are 
intended to afford the Federal Government the means of 
blockading the mouths of the Mississippi and the Southern 
ports, with the object of collecting the Federal revenue. If 
anything is clearer than another, in the doubt and perplexity 
which prevail, it is that the Government will do nothing 
whatever to precipitate a conflict. It would ill become me, 
in such a crisis, to hazard any authoritative statements as to 
the conduct of the Administration under the very great 
variety of complications which may arise hereafter. Of this, 
however, be assured, not a ship, or a gun, or a man will be 
directed to make any attack, or to begin an offensive move- 
ment against the Confederate States. If any promise was 
made by the Buchanan Administration to inform the mem- 
bers of the Southern Government or its representatives of 
their course of action, it will not be considered binding on 
the consciences of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, composed as it is 
of men who look on their predecessors as guilty of treason 
to the State. An attempt may be made to reenforce Fort 
Pickens, and neither that nor any position occupied by the 
Federal authorities will be voluntarily abandoned. 

Once for all, let it be impressed on the minds of the 
English people that whatever reports they hear, and how- 
ever they may come — no matter whence, or in what guise 
— there is no truth in them if they indicate the smallest in- 
tention on the part of Mr. Lincoln to depart from the policy 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 27 

indicated in his Inaugural Address. As strongly as words 
can do it, I repeat that the forces which have been assem- 
bled are only intended for the reenforceraent of the strong 
places at Tortugas and Key West, which have been left 
short of every necessary of occupation and defence, and for 
the establishment of posts of observation, which are essential 
in case of hostility and to guard against surprise or treachery. 
I have dwelt in previous letters on the obvious policy of the 
Government of the United States, and I beg your readers to 
have firm faith that there will be no departure from it. By 
concentrating forces at Key West and Tortugas very valua- 
ble political results are obtained in face of the present 
disputes, and material strategical advantages in case those 
disputes should lead to a rupture, which will not be initiated 
by the Cabinet at Washington. These places are within a 
few hours' sail of the coast; they are healthy, and can be 
easily supplied, as long as the United States fleet can keep 
the sea and cover the movements of its transports. Their 
occupation in force cannot be taken as an act of open war, 
while it is undoubtedly an alarming menace, which will 
keep the Confederates in a state of constant apprehension 
and preparation, leading to much internal trouble and gr^at 
expense. By a confusion of metaphor which events may 
justify, the eye to watch may be turned into an arm to 
strike. 

The Southern Commissioners are still here, but they are 
still unable to procure even a semi-official recognition of 
their existence, and all their correspondence has been car- 
ried on through one of their clerks. 

It is, perhaps, not necessary to add that Mr. Seward has 
no intention of resigning, as has been stated, and that there 
is no dissention in the Cabinet. 



LETTER IV. 

Norfolk, Va., April, 15, 1861. 

Sumter has fallen at last. So much may be accepted. 
Before many hours I hope to stand amid the ruins of a spot 
which will probably become historic, and has already made 
more noise in the world than its guns, gallant as the defence 



28 THE CIVIL WAB IN AMERICA. 

may have been. The news will produce an extraordinary 
impression at New York — it will disconcert stock-jobbers, 
and derange the most ingenious speculations. But, consid- 
erable as may be its results in any part of the Union, I ven- 
ture to say that nowhere will the shock cause such painful 
convulsions as in the Cabinet at Washington, where there 
appeared to exist the most perfect conviction that the plan 
for the relief of Sumter could not fail to be successful, either 
through the force of the expedition provided for that ob- 
ject, or through the unwillingness of the leaders at Charles- 
ton to fire the first shot, and to compel the surrender of the 
place by actual hostilities. .The confidence of Mr. Seward 
in the strength of the name and of t e resources of the 
United States Federal Government must have received a 
rude blow ; but his confidences are by no means of a weakly 
i constitution, and it will be long ere he can bring himself to 

think that all his prophecies must be given up one after 
another before the inexorable logic of facts, with which his 
vaticinations have been in " irrepressible conflict." It seems 
to me that Mr. Seward has all along undervalued the spirit 
and the resolution of the Southern Slave States, or that he 
has disguised from others the sense he entertains of their 
extent and vigor. The days assigned for the life of Seces- 
sion have been numbered over and over again, and Secession 
has not yielded up the ghost. The " bravado " of the South 
has been sustained by deeds which render retreat from its 
advanced position impossible. Mr. Seward will probably 
( find himself hard pushed to maintain his views in the Cab- 

' inet in the face of recent events, which will, no doubt, be 

used with eff'ect and skill by Mr. Chase, who is understood 
to be in favor of letting the South go as it lists without any 
more trouble, convinced as he is that it is an element of 
, weakness in the body politic, while he would be prepared to 

|, treat as treason any attempts in the remaining States of the 

|:,| Union to act on the doctrine of secession. But the Union 

1,1 party must now prevail. As yet I do not know whether the 

'I' views I expressed relative to the destination of the greater 

il part of the troops and stores sent from the North were cor- 

' rect, for it cannot be learned how many ships were off Sum- 

} ter when it surrendered ; but, notwithstanding what has 

occurred, I reiterate the assertion that the Washington Cab- 
I inet always said and say they had no intention to provoke a 

i conflict there, and that had the authorities at Charleston 

cr- inued their permission to the garrison to procure sup- 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 29 

plies in their markets, there would have been no immediate 
action on their part to precipitate the fight, though they 
were determined to hold it and Fort Pickens, as well as 
Tortugas and Key West, and to victual and strengthen the 
garrison of the former as soon as they were able. Fate was 
against them. The decision and power of their opponents 
were against them. But their defence will be that they 
co'-ild not do anything till they got troops, and ships, and 
munitions of war together, and that they did as much as 
they could in a month, Sumter, in fact, was a mouse in the 
jaws of the cat, and the moment an attempt was made to 
release the prey by external influence, the jaws were closed 
and the mouse disposed of. The act will produce, I believe, 
in spite of what I see, a very deep impression throughout 
all the States, and will tend to bring about an immediate 
collision between the high-minded parties on both sides. 
When Mr. Lincoln came into oflice it was discovered that a 
promise had been made by outgoing members of the preced- 
ing government to surrender the Southern forts. The prom- 
ise was ignored by the incoming ministry. The Southern 
Commissioners insist on it that, apart from the compact of 
Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet^ a pledge had been given to the 
South that no attempt would be made to reenforce the forts 
without notice to the Government at Montgomery ; and so 
far as can be ascertained the authorities at Washington did 
cause to be conveyed to the Southern Confederation the ex- 
pression of their intention to victual Sumter : but whether 
they do so in respect to their pledge, if it existed, or in con- 
sequence of the decision at Charleston to prevent the issuing 
of further supplies to the garrison, is uncertain. The with- 
drawal of the permission to market was all but an act of 
war. If the United States Government would act on the 
hypothesis that the Southern Confederation was an inde- 
pe^dent power, it would surely have considered the pro- 
ceeding as a prelude to immediate hostility. But the course 
thus adopted arose out of the preparations made by the 
United States Government in fitting out expeditions, the 
object of which was scarcely dubious. The Commissioners 
of the Southern States at Washington, never acknowledged, 
at last met with a decisive rebuff just as Virginia saw her 
representatives from the Convention on the way to ask Mr. 
Lincoln to explain his intentions. The Commissioners were 
given to understand that their presence was useless, and 
that the forts would be reenforced ; and on the intelligence 
S* 



m 



30 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMEEICA. 

thus furnished to the Government at Montgomery it was re- 
solved to act by summoning Major Anderson to surrender 
before succor could arrive, and in event of refusal by com- 
pelling him to yield in the sight of the would-be relieving 
squadron. As soon as the Commissioners found that Mr. 
Lincoln had made his decision, they departed in no very 
yielding temper, and washed their hands in a valedictory 
paper of the results. It was my intention to have left 
Washington early in the week, and to have reached Charles- 
ton before these gentlemen had departed, but the heavy 
storms and floods which washed away part of the railway 
between Washington and Richmond at the other side of the 
Potomac prevented my departure, and not only arrested the 
mails from the South and the journey of the Virginian del- 
egates for several days, but obliged the Commissioners to 
take the round-about course by rail to Baltimore, thence by 
steamer to Norfolk, Virginia, and then on by rail to Charles- 
ton, which I am now pursuing one day later. 

Although the Ministers at the capital affected to discredit 
the existence of any design to seize upon the city, their acts 
indicated an apprehension of danger, or at least a desire to 
take all possible precautions against treachery. The district 
militia were called out and sworn for service, and the result 
showed that there were more citizens in the ranks ready to 
stand by the Government than there were Secessionists who 
would not defend it. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 
last were very busy days. The companies forming the bat- 
talions of the district militia were mustered and marched 
off from their various quarters to the inclosure in front of 
the War Department, where they took or refused the oath 
of service, as the humor moved them. It is scarcely possi- 
ble to imagine a more heterogeneous-looking body of men ; 
the variety of uniform, of clothing, and of accoutrements 
was as great as if a specimen squad had been taken from the 
battalions of the Grand Army of 1812. The general effect 
of the men and of their habiliments is decidedly French, 
and there is even a small company of Zouaves, but I cannot 
understand how these little independent bodies are to be 
brought into line of battle, or depended on for united action. 
On the days above mentioned the monotony of the wide, life- 
less streets was broken at intervals by the tap of the drum, 
beating a pas in the French fashion, and then came the 
crowd of idlers who are fond of cheap martial display. To 
a company of forty rank and file there are generally two 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 31 

drummers and six or seven officers or more, and the glory of 
epaulettes shines out bravely through the cloud of French 
gray, and light and dark blue capotes. The musters are 
not, I am told, as they should be. There are some pale 
faces, rounded shoulders, and weak frames in the ranks, but 
the majority are very fair specimens of a fine race of men, 
and some companies were composed of soldier-like, stout 
fellows, who only required active service to set* them up for 
any military duty. Not a fourth of those bound to serve 
were ready, however, to come forward and fight for the Gov- 
ernment at Washington; and it is probable that nothing 
short of a struggle for life or death would induce one-half 
to take the field. Not one-half of the militia is properly 
armed. It is a great army on paper ; no army in the world 
is so ma<5nificently officered, even in proportion to its num- 
bers. The strength of the militia of the whole of the ex- 
United States is nearly 3,000,000 men of all ranks. Of 
these there are no less than 3,833 generals of all sorts, _ 
9,800 colonels and field officers, 38,680 captains and sub- 
alterns. Kentucky boasts of 188 generals. New York has 
not less than 392, Michigan is rich in 383 generals, and so 
on. But, unless there were some popular passion to excite 
the country, the actual force available for the field would be 
a fractional part of these grand totals. The American Mi- 
nerva, which sprang from the womb of the great Revolution- 
ary War with panoply of proof, believes that she is invinci- 
ble, and there is unquestionably a strong military spirit 
among the people, generated by the instances which attend- 
ed their national birth, and developed by the subsequent 
small wars in which they have been engaged with rather 
impotent enemies. Whether this spirit will be called forth 
in the North and West as largely as it unquestionably has 
been in the South, remains to be seen. ..The evidences of 
the near approach of a civil war are now beyond all dispute, 
but the nature of the conflict will depend on the steps taken 
by the belligerents. If the Southern States await invasion 
they fight over a loaded mine. To avoid the horrors of a 
conflict on their own soil, they will probably seek to make 
good their boast of marching upon Washington ; but wheth- 
er they will reach it is quite another matter. The present 
means of defending it are very contemptible ; but vast pop- 
ulations are close at hand which can furnish thousands of 
men for its protection. The city contains no stragetical 
points, and in a military sense its possession is not so impor- 



32 THE CIYIL WAH IN AMERICA. 

tant that it would be worth while to risk all to gain it ; but 
its political significance is enormous, and it is likely enough 
that the Capital will become the object of military demonstra- 
tions on both sides. With the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay 
strongly held by the Federal Government, Virginia, in case 
she casts in her lot with the South, will find herself menaced 
in the most formidable manner. Southern men have com- 
plained to me in terms of the strongest indignation, that 
Virginia Secessionists have applied to South Carolina for 
five thousand men to enable them to seize the forts which 
command the rivers and the sea-coast. It proves that little 
active aid can be expected from that State if the Confederate 
party cannot do that little piece of business on their own 
account. 

From the date of this letter it will be seen that I am on 
my way to the South ; and, although I shall not arrive in 
time to give any account of the recent operations against 
Fort Sumter, I hope to gain some insight into the actual 
condition of the army of the Confederate States. 

On Friday evening I bade good-by to Washington, and 
none of the Ministers had any idea that Sumter had been 
attacked, nor had Lord Lyons received any intelligence from 
Charleston. 



LETTER V. 

Charleston, S. C.,- April 21, 1861. 

I FIND some consolation for the disappointment of not 
arriving in time to witness the attack upon Fort Sumter in 
describing the condition of the work soon after Major An- 
derson surrendered it. Already I have upon my table a 
pamphlet entitled ** The Battle of Fort Sumter and First 
Victory of the Southern Troops," &c. ; several " poems," 
and a variety of versicules, songs, and rhetorical exercitations 
upon this event, which, however important as a political de- 
monstration, is of small value in a military sense, except in 
so far as the bloodless occupation of a position commanding 
Charleston Harbor is concerned. It may tend to prevent 
any false impressions founded on imperfect information to 
state a few facts connected with the fire in the work, and its 
efiects, which will interest, at least, some military readers. 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA. 33 

In the first place, it may be well to admit that the military 
preparations and positions of the South Carolinians were 
more formidable than one was prepared to expect on the 
part of a small. State, without any considerable internal 
organization or resources. This comparative efficiency was 
due mainly to General Beauregard and his assistant engineer, 
Major Whiting, who are both professional engineer officers 
of the United States Army, and who had capacity and 
influence enough to direct the energies of the undisciplined 
masses in the proper direction, instead of allowing them to 
rush on their fate in the perilous essay of an escalade, as 
they intended. The State of South Carolina had for a long 
time past been accumulating arms and munitions of war, and 
it may bs said that ever since the nullification contest she 
had permitted herself to dwell on the idea of ultimate seces- 
sion, to be effected by force, if necessary. When General 
BeauregarH and Major Whiting came here, the works in- 
tended to resist the fleet and to crush the fort were in a very 
imperfect state. Major Anderson and his officers had a true 
professional contempt for the batteries of the civilians and 
militiamen, which Avas in some measure justifiable. One 
morning, however, as they took their survey of the enemy's 
labors for the previous night, they perceived a change had 
come over the design of their works. That " some one who 
knows his business is over there" was evident. Their 
strange relationship with those who were preparing to de- 
stroy them if possible, however, prevented their recourse to 
the obvious means which were then in abundance in their 
hands to avert the coming danger. Had Major Anderson 
maintained a well-regulated fire on the enemy the moment 
they began to throw up their batteries and prepare Fort 
Moultrie against him, he could have made their progress 
very slow and exceedingly laborious, and have marked it at 
every step with blood. His command over the ground was 
very decided, but he had, it is to be supposed, no authority 
to defend himself in the only way in which it could be done. 
"Too late" — that fatal phrase — was the echo to every 
order which came from the seat of government at Washing- 
ton. Meantime the South Carolinians worked at their 
batteries, and were soon able to obtain cover on the soft 
sandy plains on which they were planting their guns and 
mortars. They practised their men at the guns, stacked 
shot and shell, and furnished their magazines, and drilled 
their raw levies with impunity within fourteen hundred 



34 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

yards of the fort. We all know what impunity is worth 
in offensive demonstrations. It is a powerful agent some- 
times in creating enthusiasm. Every day more volunteers 
flocl^d to the various companies, or created new associations 
of amied men, and the heterogeneous and motley mass began 
to assume some resemblance to an army, however irregular. 
At the present moment Charleston is like a place in the 
neighborhood of a camp where military and volunteer tailors 
are at work trying experiments in uniforms, and sending in 
their animated models for inspection. There is an endless 
variety — often of ugliness — in dress and equipment and 
nomenclature among these companies. The head-dress is 
generally, however, a smart cap like the French kepi ; the 
tunic is of different cuts, colors, facings, and materials — 
green with gray and yellow, gray with orange and black and 
white, blue with white, and yellow facings, roan, brown, 
burnt sienna, and olive — jackets, frocks, tunics, blouses, 
cloth, linen, tweed, flannel. The officers are generally in 
blue frocks and brass buttons, with red sashes, the rank 
being indicated by gold lace parallelograms on the shoulder 
straps, which are like those in use in the Russian army. 
The arms of the men seem tolerably well kept and in good 
order. Many, however, still shoulder " White Bess " — the 
old smooth-bore musket with unbrowned barrel. The fol- 
lowing is an official return, which I am enabled to present 
to you through the courtesy of the authorities, showing the 
actual number of men under arms yesterday in and around 
Charleston : — 

Morris Island. — I'Ytli Regiment, 700 men; 1st Regiment, 950 
men; 2d Regiment, 975 men. Total, 2625. 

Sullivan's Island. — 5th Regiment, 1,075 men; detachment of 8th 
Regiment, 250 men ; detachment of 6th Regiment, 200 men ; cavalry 
and others, 225 men. Total, 1,750. 

Stone and other points, 750 men; Charleston, 1,900 men; Columbia, 
1 ,950 men. 

Men. 
Morris Island, . . . ... . 2,625 

Sullivan's Island, . . . . . . . 1,750 

Stone and other points, 750 

Total, 5,125 

Columbia, 1,950 

Charleston, 1,900 

Total, . 8,975 

In field at the time of report, 3,027 

Total, 12,002 ^ 



THE CIYIIi WAK IN AMEKICA. 35 

The regiments mentioned here are composed of the vari- 
ous companies raised in different localities with different 
names, but the State regulars are in expectation that they 
will soon be made portions of the regular army of the Con- 
federate States, which is in course of formation. There are, 
I believe, only fifty-five thousand registered voters in South 
Carolina. The number of men furnished by them is a fair 
indication of the zeal for the cause which animates the pop- 
ulation. The physique of the troops is undeniably good. 
Now and then undersized, weakly men may be met with, 
but the great majority of the companies consist of rank and 
file exceeding the average stature of Europeans, and very 
well built and muscular. The men run very large down 
here. Nothing, indeed, can be more obvious when one 
looks at the full-grown, healthy, handsome race which de- 
velopes itself in the streets, in the bar-rooms, and in the 
hotel halls, than the error of the argument, which is mainly 
used by the Carolinians themselves, that white men cannot 
thrive in their State. In limb, figure, height, weight, they 
are equal to any people I have ever seeij^^and their features 
are very regular and pronounced. They are, ifideed, as un- 
like the ideal American of our caricaturists and our stage as 
is the "mi7or" of the Porte St. Martin to the English gen- 
tleman. Some of this superiority is due to the fact that 
the bulk of the white population here are in all but name 
aristocrats or rather oligarchs. The State is but a gigantic 
Sparta, in which the helotry are marked by an indelible 
difference of color and race from the masters. The white 
population, which is not land and slaveholding and agricul- 
tural, is very small and very insignificant. The masters 
enjoy every advantage which can conduce to the physical 
excellence of a people, and to the cultivation of the graces 
and accomplishments of life, even though they are rather 
disposed to neglect purely intellectual enjoyments and 
tastes. Many of those who serve in the ranks are men 
worth from £5,000 to £10,000 a year — at least, so I 
was told — and men were pointed out to me who were said 
to be worth far more. One private feeds his company on 
French pates and Madeira, another provides his comrades 
with unlimited champagne, most grateful on the arid sand- 
hill ; a third, with a more soldierly view to their permanent 
rather than occasional efficiency, purchases for the men of 
his " guard " a complete equipment of Enfield rifles. How 
long the zeal and resources of these gentlemen will last it 



36 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

may not be easy to say. At present they would prove for- 
midable to any enemy, except a regular army on the plain 
and in the open field, but they are not provided with field 
artillery or with adequate cavalry, and they are not accus- 
tomed to act in concert and in large bodies. 

Yesterday morning I waited on General Beauregard, who 
is commanding the forces of South Carolina. His aides-de- 
camp, Mr. Manning, Mr. Chesnut, Mr. Porcher Miles, and 
Colonel Lucas, accompanied me. Of these, the former has 
been Governor of this State, the next has been a Senator, the 
third a member of Congress. They are all volunteers, and 
are gentlemen of position in the^ State, and the fact that they 
are not only content but gratified to act as aides to the pro- 
fessional soldier, is the best proof of the reality of the spirit 
which animates the class they represent. Mr. Lucas is a 
gentleman of the State, who is acting as aid-de-camp to 
Governor Pickens. Passing through the dense crowd which, 
talking, smoking, and reading newspapers, fills the large 
hall on Mills's house, we emerge on the dirty streets, suffi- 
ciently broad, anc^ined with trees protected by wooden 
sheathings at the oase. The houses, not very lofty, are 
clean and spacious, and provided with verandahs facing the 
South as far as possible. The trees give the streets the air 
of a boulevard, and the town has somehow or other a rem- 
iniscence of the Hague about it, which I cannot explain or 
account for satisfactorily. The headquarters are in a large, 
airy, public building, once devoted to an insurance com- 
pany's operations, or to the accommodation of the public 
fire companies. There was no guard at the door ; officers 
and privates were passing to and fro in the hall, part of 
which was cut off by canvass screens, so as to form rooms 
for departments of the Horse Guards of South Carolina. 
Into one of these we turned, and found the desks occupied 
by officers in uniform, waiting despatches and copying docu- 
ments with all the abandon which distinguishes the true 
soldier when he can get at printed forms and Government 
stationery. In another moment we were ushered into a 
smaller room, and were presented to thie General, who was 
also seated at his desk. Any one accustomed to soldiers 
can readily detect the " real article " from the counterfeit, 
and when General Beauregard stood up to welcome us, it 
was patent he was a man capable of greater things than 
taking Sumter. He is a squarely-built, lean man, of about 
iH forty years of age, with broad shoulders, and legs "made to 



iiii 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 37 

fit " a horse, of middle height, and his head is covered with 
thick hair, cropped close, and showing the bumps, which 
are reflective and combative, with a true Gallic air, at the 
back of the skull; the forehead, broad and well-developed, 
projects somewhat over the keen, eager, dark eyes ; the 
face is very thin, with very high cheek-bones, a well-shaped 
nose, slightly aquiline, and a large, rigid, sharply cut mouth, 
set above a full fighting chin. In the event of any impor- 
tant operations taking place, the name of this officer will, I 
feel assured, be heard often enough to be my excuse for 
this little sketch of his outward man. He was good enough 
to detail his chief engineer officer to go with me over the 
works, and I found in Major Whiting a most able guide 
and agreeable companion. It is scarcely worth while to 
waste time in describing the position of Charleston. It 
lies as low as Venice, the look of which it rather aff'ects 
from a distance, with long, sandy islands stretching out as 
arms to close up the approaches, and lagunes cutting into 
the marshy shores. ' On a sandy island and spit on the left 
hand shore stands Fort Moultrie. On the southern side, 
on another sandy island, are the lines of the batteries which, 
probably, were most dangerous, from their proximity and 
position, to the unprotected face of Sumter. The fort 
itself is built in the tideway, on a rocky point, which has 
been increased by artificial deposits of granite chips. Em- 
barked, with a few additions to our original party, on board 
a small steamer, called the Lady Davis, we first proceeded to 
Morris Island, about 3|- miles from Charleston. Our steam- 
er was filled with commissariat stores for the troops, of 
whom 4,000 were said to be encamped among the sand-hills. 
Any one who has ever been at Southport, or has seen the 
dunes about Dunkirk or Calais, will have a good idea of 
the place. Our landing was opposed by a guard of stout 
volunteers, with crossed firelocks ; but they were satisfied 
by the General's authority, and we proceeded, ankle-deep 
in the soft, white sand, to visit the batteries which played 
on the landward face of Sumter. They are made of sand- 
bags for the most part, well placed in the sand-hills, with 
good traverses and well-protected magazines, the embrasures 
being faced with palmetto logs, which do not splinter when 
struck by shot. It did not, however, require much investi- 
gation to show that these works would be greatly injured 
by a fire of vertical and horizontal shell from the fort, and 
that the distance of their armament would render it difficult 
4 



do THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEBICA. 

to breacli the solid walls which were opposed to them at 
upward of 1,200 yards away. However, there were two 
powerful mortar batteries, which could have done great 
damage if they were well served, and have made the 
terreplein and parade of the fort a complete " shell trap " 
unless the mortars were injured. The civilians and militia- 
men set greater store on the Iron Battery at Cummings' 
Point, which is the part of the island nearest to the fort, 
but the fire of heavy guns would have soon destroyed their 
confidence. It consists of yellow pine logs placed as verti- 
cal uprights. The roof, of the same material, slopes from 
the top of the uprights to the sand facing the enemy ; over 
it are dovetailed bars of railroad iron, of the T pattern, 
from top to bottom, all riveted down in the most secure 
manner. On the front the railroad iron roof and incline 
present an angle of about thirty degrees. There are three 
portholes with iron shutters. When opened by the action 
of a lever the muzzles of the columbiads fill up the space 
completely. The columbiad guns with which this battery 
is equipped bear on the south wall of Sumter at an angle. 
The inclined side of the battery has been struck by six 
shots, the efi'ect of two of which is enough to demonstrate 
that the fire of the guns en larlette would have been de- 
structive. The columbiad is a kind of Dahlgren — that is, a 
piece of ordinance very thick in the breech, and lightened 
ofi" gradually from the trunnions to the muzzle. The plat- 
forms were rather light, but the carriages were solid and 
well made, and the elevating screws or hitches of the guns 
were in good order. The mortars are of various calibres 
and descriptions, mostly 8-inch and 10-inch; and it is said 
there were seventeen of them in position and working 
against the fort, and that thirty-five guns were from time to 
time directed against it. Shot and shell appeared to be 
abundant enough. The works are all small detatched bat- 
teries, with sand-bag merlons, and open at the gorge, and 
they extend for four miles along the shore of the island. 
The camps are pitched most irregularly between the sand- 
hills — tents of all shapes and sizes, in the fashion called 
higgledy-piggledy, here and there, in knots and groups, in 
a way that would drive an Indian quartermaster-general 
mad. Bones of beef and mutton, champagne and wine 
bottles, obstructed the approaches, which were of a nature 
to afflict Dr. Sutherland and Sir John M'Neill most bitterly, 
and to suggest the reflection that the army which so utterly 



THE CIVIL WAU IN AMERICA. 39 

neglected sanitary regulations could not long exist as soon 
as the sun gained full power. They say, however, the men 
are not sickly, and that these sand-hills are the most healthy 
spots about Charleston. The men were occupied as soldiers 
generally are when they have nothing to do — lounging or 
lying on the straw and plank carpets, smoking, reading, 
sleeping. The owners of the tents give them various names, 
of which " The Lions' Den," " The Tigers' Lair," " The 
Eagles' Nest," " Mars' Delight," are fair specimens, and 
these are done in black on the white calico. In one which 
we visited, the hospitable inmates were busily engaged in 
brewing claret cup, and Bordeaux, lemons, sugar, ice, and 
Champagne, and salads were in abundance, and at the end 
of the tent was a Bar, where anything else in reason could 
be had for the asking, though water was not so plentiful. 
At one of the batteries the great object of attraction was 
a gun made on Captain Blakeley's principle, by Messrs. Faw- 
cett, Preston & Co.^ of Liverpool, which was only put in 
battery the day before the fire opened, and the effect of 
which on the masonry is said to have been very powerful. 
It is a 12-pounder — the same which was tried last year, I 
think — and bears a brass plate with the inscription, " Pre- 
sented to South Carolina by one of her citizens." It is re- 
markable enough that the vessel which carried it lay in the 
midst of the Linited States war vessels at the mouth of the 
harbor. 

Having satisfied our curiosity as well as time and a sand- 
storm permitted, we got in a row-boat and proceeded to 
Sumter. At a distance, the fort bears some resemblance. 
to Fort Paul at Sevastopol. It is a truncated pentagon, 
with three faces armed — that which is toward Morris Island 
being considered safe from attack, as the work was only in- 
tended to resist an approach from the sea. It is said to 
have cost altogether more than £200,000 sterling. The 
walls are of solid brick and concrete masonry, built close to 
the edge of the water, sixty feet high, and from eight to 
twelve feet in thickness, and carry three tiers of guns on the 
north, east, and west exterior sides. Its weakest point is 
on the south side, where the masonry is not protected by 
any flank fire to sweep the wharf. The work is designed 
for an armament of one hundred and forty pieces of ord- 
nance of all calibres. Two tiers are under bomb-proof 
casemates, and the third or upper tier is en harhette ; the 
lower tier is intended for 42-pounders paixhan guns ; the 



40 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

second tier for eight and ten-inch columbiads, for throwing 
solid or hollow shot, and the upper tier for mortars and 
guns. But only seventy-five are now mounted. Eleven 
paixhan guns are among that number, nine of them command- 
ing Fort Moultrie. Some of the columbiads are not mount- 
ed. Four of the 32-pounder barhette guns are on pivot 
carriages, and others have a sweep of 180°. The walls are 
pierced everywhere for musketry. The magazine contains 
several hundred barrels of gunpowder, and a supply of shot, 
powder, and shells. The garrison was amply supplied with 
water from artificial wells. The war garrison of the fort 
ought to be at least six hundred men, but only seventy- 
nine were within its walls, with the laborers — one hundred 
and nine all told — at the time of the attack. 

The walls of the fort are dented on all sides by shot 
marks, but in no instance was any approach made to a 
breach, and the greatest damage, at one of the angles on 
the south face, did not extend more than two feet into the 
masonry, which is of very fine brick. The parapet is, of 
course, damaged, but the casemate embrasures are uninjured. 
On landing at the wharf we perceived that the granite cop- 
ings, had suff'ered more than the brickwork, and that the 
stone had split up and splintered where it was struck. The 
ingenuity of the defenders was evident even here. They 
had no mortar with which to fasten up the stone slabs they 
had adapted as blinds to the windows of the unprotected 
south side ; but Major Anderson, or his subordinate. Captain 
Foster, had closed the slabs in with lead, which he procured 
from some water piping, and had rendered them proof 
against escalade, which he was prepared also to resent by 
extensive mines laid under the wharf and landing-place, to 
be fired by friction tubes and lines laid inside the work. 
He had also prepared a number of shells for the same pur- 
pose, to act as hand-grenades, with friction tubes and lan- 
yards, when hurled down from the parapet on his assailants. 
The entrance to the fort was blocked up by masses of ma- 
sonry, which had been thrown down from the walls of the 
burnt barracks and officers' quarters, along the south side. 
A number of men were engaged in digging up the mines at 
the wharf, and others were busied in completing the ruin of 
the tottering walls, which were still so hot that it was 
necessary to keep a hose of water playing on part of the 
brickwork. To an uninitiated eye it would seem as if the 
fort was untenable, but, in reality, in spite of the destruc- 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMEKICA. 41 

tion done to it, a stout garrison, properly supplied, would 
have been in no danger from anything, except the explosion 
of the magazine, of which the copper door was jammed by 
the heat at the time of the surrender. Exclusive of the 
burning of the quarters and the intense heat, there was no 
reason for a properly handled and sufficient force to surren- 
der the place. It is needless to say Major Anderson had 
neither one nor the other, He was in all respects most 
miserably equipped. His guns were without screws, scales, 
or tangents, so that his elevations were managed by rude 
wedges of deal, and his scales marked in chalk on the 
breech of the guns, and his distances and bearings scratched 
in the same way on the side of the embrasures. He had 
not a single fuse for his shells, and he tried in vain to im- 
provise them by filling pieces of bored-out pine with caked 
gunpowder. His cartridges were out, and he was compelled 
to detail some few of his men to make them out of shirts, 
stockings, and jackets. He had not a single mortar, and he 
was compelled to the desperate expedient of planting long 
guns in the ground at an angle of 45 degrees, for which 
he could find no shell, as he had no fuses which could be 
fired with safety. He had no sheers to mount his guns, 
and chance alone enabled him to do so by drifting some 
large logs down Avith the tide against Sumter. Finally, he 
had not even one engine to put out a fire in quarters. I 
walked carefully over the parade, and could detect the 
marks of only seven shells in the ground ; but Major Whit- 
ing told me the orders were to burst the shells over the 
parapet, so as to frustrate any attempt to work the barbette 
guns. Two of these were injured by shot, and one was 
overturned, apparently by its own recoil ; but there was no 
injury done inside any of the casemates to the guns or 
works. The shell splinters had all disappeared, carried ofi", 
I am told, as " trophies." Had Major Anderson been prop- 
erly provided, so that he could have at once sent his men 
to the guns, opened fire from those in barbette, thrown shell 
and hot shot, kept relays to all his casemates, and put out 
fires as they arose from red-hot shot or shell, he must, I have 
/ no earthly doubt, have driven the troops ofi" Morris Island, 
\ burnt out Fort Moultrie, and silenced the enemy's fire. 
His loss might have been considerable ; that of the Con- 
federates must have been very great. As it was, not a life 
was lost by actual fire on either side. A week hence and 
it will be impossible for a fleet to do anything except 



42 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

cover tlie descent of an army here, and they must lie 
off, at the least, four miles from the nearest available 
beach. 



LETTER VI. 

THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

April 30, 1861. 
Nothing I could say can be worth one fact which has 
forced itself upon my mind in reference to the sentiments 
which prevail among the gentlemen of this State. I have 
been among them several days. I have visited their planta- 
tions, I have conversed with them freely and fully, and I 
have enjoyed that frank, courteous, and graceful intercourse 
which constitutes an irresistible charm of their society. 
From all quarters have come to my ears the echoes of the 
same voice ; it may be feigned, but there is no discord in 
the note, and it sounds in wonderful strength and monotony 
all over the country. Shades of George III., of North, 
of Johnson, of all who contended against the great rebellion 
which tore these colonies from England, can you hear the 
chorus which rings through the State of Marion, Sumter, 
and Pinckney, and not clap your ghostly hands in triumph ? 
That voice says, " If we could only get one of the Royal 
race of England to rule over us, we should be content." 
Let there be no misconception on this point. That senti- 
ment, varied in a hundred ways, has been repeated to me 
over and over again. There is a general admission that 
the means to such an end are wanting, and that the desire, 
cannot be gratified. But the admiration for monarchical 
institutions on the English model, for privileged classes, 
and for a landed aristocracy and gentry, is undisguised and 
apparently genuine. With the pride of having achieved 
their independence is mingled in the South Carolinians' 
hearts a strange regret at the result and consequences, and 
many are they who " would go back to-morrow if we could." 
An intense affection for the British connection, a love of 
British habits and customs, a respect for British sentiment, 
law, authority, order, civilization, and literature, preemi- 
nently distinguish the inhabitants of this State, who, glory- 
ing in their descent from ancient families on the three 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 43 

islands, whose fortunes they still follow, and with whose 
members they maintain not unfrequently familiar relations, 
regard with an aversion of which it is impossible to give an 
idea to one who has not seen its manifestations, the people 
of New England and the populations of the Northern 
States, whom they regard as tainted beyond cure by the 
venom of " Puritanism." Whatever may be the cause, this 
is the fact and the effect. . " The State of South Carolina 
was," I am told, " founded by gentlemen." It was not 
established by witch-burning Puritans, by cruel persecut- 
ing fanatics, who implanted in the North the standard 
of Torquemada, and breathed into the nostrils of their 
newly-born colonies all the ferocity of blood-thirstiness and 
rabid intolerance of the Inquisition. It is absolutely 
astounding to a stranger, who aims at the preservation of a 
decent neutrality, to mark the violence of these opinions. 

" If that confounded ship had sunk with those Pilgrim 

Fathers on board," says one, " we never should have been 
driven to these extremities!" "We could have got on 
with fanatics if they had been either Christians or gentle- 
men," says another ; "for in the first case they would have 
acted with common charity, and in the second they would 
have fought when they insulted us ; but there are neither 
Christians nor gentlemen among them ! " " Anything on 
the earth!" exclaims a third, " any form of government, 
any tyranny or despotism you will ; but " — and here is an 
appeal more terrible than the adjuration of all the Gods — 
" nothing on earth shall ever induce us to submit to any 
union with the brutal, bigoted blackguards of the New 
England States, who neither comprehend nor regard the 
feelings of gentlemen ! Man, woman, and child, we '11 die 
first." Imagine these and an infinite variety of similar 
sentiments uttered by courtly, well-educated men, who set 
great store on a nice observance of the usages of society, 
and who are only moved to extreme bitterness and anger 
when they speak of the North, and you will fail to conceive 
the intensity of the dislike of the South Carolinians for the 
Free States. There are national antipathies on our side of 
the Atlantic which are tolerably strong, and have been un- 
fortunately pertinacious and long-lived. The hatred of the 
Italian for the Tedesco, of the Greek for the Turk, of the 
Turk for the Russ, is warm and fierce enough to satisfy the 
Prince of Darkness, not to speak of a few little pet aver- 
sions among the allied Powers and the atoms of composite 



44 THE CIYIL WAK IN AMERICA. 

empires ; but they are all mere indifference and neutrality 
of feeling compared to the animosity evinced by the 
" gentry " of South Carolina for the " rabble of the 
rp,;; North." 

The contests of Cavalier and Roundhead, of Vendean 
and Republican, even of Orangeman and Croppy, have been 
elegant joustings, regulated by the finest rules of chivalry, 
compared with those which North and South will carry on 
if their deeds support their words. " Immortal hate, the 
study of revenge," will actuate every blow, and never in 
the history of the world, perhaps, will go forth such a dread- 
ful vcB victis as that which may be heard before the fight 
has begun. There is nothing in all the dark caves of hu- 
man passion so cruel and deadly as the hatred the South 
Carolinians profess for the Yankees. That hatred has been 
swelling for years, till it is the very life-blood of the State. 
It has set South Carolina to work steadily to organize her 
resources for the struggle which she intended to provoke, if 
it did not come in the course of time. " Incompatibility of 
temper " would have been sufficient ground for the divorce,, 
and I am satisfied that there has been a deep-rooted design, 
conceived in some men's minds thirty years ago, and ex- 
tended gradually year after year to others, to break away 
from the Union at the very first opportunity. The North 
is to South Carolina a corrupt and evil thing, to which for 
long years she has been bound by burning chains, while 
monopolists and manufacturers fed on her tender limbs. 
She has been bound in a Maxentian union to the object she 
loathes. New England is to her the incarnation of moral 
, ;, and political wickedness and social corruption. It is the 

3,1 source of everything which South Carolina hates, and of the 

1 1 I torrents of free thought and taxed manufactures, of Aboli- 

i ' ! tionism and of fiUibustering, which have flooded the land. 

Believe a Southern man as he believes himself, and you 
must regard New England and the kindred States as the 
birthplace of impurity of mind among men and of unchas- 
i tity in women — the home of Free Love, of Fourierism, of 

||l!i| Infidelity, of Abolitionism, of false teachings in political 

'I Mi economy and in social life; a land saturated with the drip- 

|,y||j pings of rotten philosophy, with the poisonous infections of 

' a fanatic press ; without honor or modesty ; whose wisdom 

i is paltry cunning, whose valor and manhood have been swal- 

.jlljlj lowed up in a corrupt, howling demagogy, and in the marts 

:'ijli|{ of a dishonest commerce. It is the merchants of New York 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 45 

who fit out ships for the slave-trade, and carry it on in 
Yankee ships. It is the capital of the North which sup- 
"ports, and it is Northern men who concoct and execute, the 
fillibustering expeditions which have brought discredit on 
the Slave-holding States. In the large cities people are 
corrupted by itinerant and ignorant lecturers — in the towns 
and in the country by an unprincipled press. The popula- 
tions, indeed, know how to read and write, but they don't 
know how to think, and they are the easy victims of the 
wretched impostors on. all the 'ologies and 'isms who swarm 
over the region, and subsist by lecturing on subjects which 
the innate vices of mankind induce them to accept with 
eagerness, while they assume the garb of philosophical ab- 
stractions^ to cover their nastiness in deference to a con-- 
itemptible and universal hypocrisy. 

'* Who fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies ? " i 

Assuredly the New England demon who has been persecut- 
ing the South until its intolerable cruelty and insolence 
forced her, in a spasm of agony, to rend her chains asunder. 
The New Englander must have something to persecute, and 
as. he has hunted down all his Indians, burnt all his 
witches, and persecuted all his opponents to the death, he 
invented Abolitionism as the sole resource left to him for 
the gratification of his favorite passion. Next to this mo- 
tive principle is his desire to make money dishonestly, 
trickily, meanly, and shabbily. He has acted on it in all 
his relations with the South, and has cheated and plundered 
her in all his dealings by villainous tariffs. If one objects 
that the South must have been a party to this, because her 
boast is that her statesmen have ruled the Government of 
the country, you are told that the South yielded out of pure 
good nature. Now, however, she will have free trade, and 
will open the coasting trade to foreign nations, and shut out 
from it the hated Yankees, who so long monopolized and 
made their fortunes by it. Under all the varied burdens 
and miseries to which she was subjected, the South held 
fast to her sheet anchor. South Carolina was the mooring 
ground in which it found the surest hold. The doctrine of 
State Rights was her salvation, and the fiercer the storm 
raged against her — the more stoutly demagogy, immigrant 
preponderance, and the blasts of universal suffrage bore 
down on her, threatening to sweep away the vested in- 
terests of the South in her right to govern the States — the 



46 THE CIYIL WAE IN AMERICA. 

greater was her confidence and the more resolutely she held 
on her cable. The North attracted " hordes of ignorant 
Germans and Irish," and the scum of Europe, while the 
South repelled them. The industry, the capital of the 
North increased with enormous rapidity, under the influ- 
ence of cheap labor and manufacturing ingenuity and enter- 
prise, in the villages which swelled into towns, and the 
towns which became cities, under the unenvious eye of the 
South. She, on the contrary, toiled on slowly, clearing 
forests and draining swamps to find new cotton-grounds 
and rice-fields, for the employment of her only industry and 
for the development of her only capital — " involuntary la- 
bor." The tide of immigration waxed stronger, and by 
degrees she saw the districts into which she claimed the 
right to introduce that capital closed against her, and occu- 
pied by free labor. The doctrine of squatter *' sovereignty," 
and the force of hostile tariff's, which placed a heavy duty 
on the very articles which the South most required, com- 
pleted the measure of injuries to which she was subjected, 
and the spirit of discontent found vent in fiery debate, in 
personal insults, and in acrimonious speaking and writing, 
which increased in intensity in proportion as the Abolition 
movement, and the contest between the Federal principle 
and State Rights, became more vehement. I am desirous 
of showing in a few words, for the information of English 
readers, how it is that the Confederacy which Europe knew 
simply as a political entity has succeeded in dividing itself. 
The Slave States held the doctrine, or say they did, that 
each State was independent as France or as England, but 
that for certain purposes they chose a common agent to deal 
with foreign nations, and to impose taxes for the purpose of 
paying the expenses of the agency. We, it appears, talked 
of American citizens when there were no such beings at all. 
There were, indeed, citizens of the Sovereign State of 
South Carolina, or of Georgia or Florida, who permitted 
themselves to pass under that designation, but it was merely 
as a matter of personal convenience. It will be difficult for 
Europeans to understand this doctrine, as nothing like it 
has been heard before, and no such Confederation of Sover- 
eign States has ever existed in any country in the world. 
The Northern men deny that it existed here, and claim for 
the Federal Government powers not compatible with such 
assumptions. They have lived for the Union, they served 
it, they labored for and made money by it. A man as a 



THE ClYIL WAE, IN AMEJRICA. 47 

New York man was nothing — as an American citizen he 
was a great deal. A South Carolinian objected to lose his 
identity in any description which included him and a 
" Yankee clockmaker " in the same category. The Union 
was against him ; he remembered that he came from a race 
of English gentlemen who had been persecuted by the rep- 
resentatives — for he will not call them the ancestors — of 
the Puritans of New England, and he thought that they 
were animated by the same hostility to himself. He was 
proud of old names, and he felt pleasure in tracing his con- 
nection with old families in the old country. His planta- 
tions were held by old charters, or had been in the hands of 
his fathers for several generations ; and he delighted to re- 
member that when the Stuarts were banished from their 
throne and their country, the burgesses of South Carolina 
had solemnly elected the wandering Charles king of their 
State, and had offered him an asylum and a kingdom. The 
philosophical historian may exercise his ingenuity in con- 
jecturing v/hat would have been the result if the fugitive 
had carried his fortunes to Charleston. 

South Carolina contains 34,000 square miles and a popu- 
lation of 720,000 inhabitants, of whom 385,000 are black 
slaves. In the old rebellion it was distracted between revo- 
lutionary principles and the loyalist predilections, and at 
least one half of the planters were faithful to George HI., 
nor did they yield till Washington sent an army to support 
their antagonists, and drove them from the colony. 

In my next letter I shall give a brief account of a visit 
to some of the planters, as far as it can be made consistent 
with the obligations which the rites and rights of hospitality 
impose on the guest , as well as upon the host. These gen- 
tlemen are well-bred, courteous, and hospitable. A genu- 
ine aristocracy, they have time to cultivate their minds, to 
apply themselves to politics and the guidance of public 
affairs. They travel and read, love field sports, racing, 
'shooting, hunting and fishing, are bold horsemen, and good 
shots. But, after all, their State is a modern Sparta — an 
aristocracy resting on a helotry, and with nothing else to 
rest upon. Although they profess (and I believe, indeed, 
sincerely) to hold opinions in opposition to the opening of 
the skve trade, it is nevertheless true that the clause in the 
Constitution of the Confederate States which prohibited the 
importation of negroes was especially and energetically re- 
sisted by them, because, as they say, it seemed to be an ad- 



48 THE CIYIIi WAB IN AMERICA. 

mission that slavery was in itself an evil and a wrong. 
Their whole system rests on slavery, and as such they de- 
fend it. They entertain very exaggerated ideas of the mili- 
tary strength of their little community, although one may 
do full justice, to its military spirit. Out of their whole 
population they cannot reckon more than 60,000 adult men 
by any arithmetic, and as there are nearly 30,000 plantations 
which must be, according to law, superintended by white 
men, a considerable number of these adults cannot be spared 
from the State for service in the open field. The planters 
boast that they can raise their crops without any inconven- 
ience by the labor of their negroes, and they seem confident 
that the negroes will work without superintendence* But 
the experiment is rather dangerous, and it will only be tried 
in the last extremity. 

Savannah, Ga., May 1, 1861. 

It is said that " fools build houses for wise men to live 
in." Be that true or not, it is certain that " Uncle Sam " 
has built strong places for his enemies to occupy. To-day 
I visited Fort Pulaski, which defends the mouth of the Sa- 
vannah River and the approaches to the city. It was left 
to take care of itself, and the Georgians quietly stepped into 
it, and have been busied in coihpleting its defences, so that 
it is now capable of stopping a fleet very effectually. Pu- 
laski was a Pole who fell in the defence of Savannah against 
the British, and whose memory is perpetuated in the name 
of the fort, which is now under the Confederate flag, and 
garrisoned by bitter foes of the United States. Among our 
party were Commodore Tattnall, whose name will be famil- 
iar to English ears in connection with the attack on the 
Peiho Forts, where the gallant American showed the world 
that " blood was thicker than water," Brigadier- General 
Lawton, in command of the forces of Georgia, and a num- 
ber of naval and military oflicers, of whom many had be- 
longed to the United States regular service. It was 
strange to look at such a man as the Commodore, who for 
forty-nine long years had served under the Stars and Stripes, 
quietly preparing to meet his old comrades and friends, if 
needs be, in the battle-field — his allegiance to the country 
and to the flag renoimced, his long service flung away, his 
old ties and connections severed — and all this in defence of 
the sacred right of rebellion on the part of " his State." 
He is not now, nor has he been for years, a slave-owner ; all 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA. 49 

his family and familiar associations connect hijn with the 
the North. There are no naval stations on the Southern 
coasts except one at Pensacola, and he knows almost no one 
in the South. He has no fortune whatever, his fleet con- 
sists of two small river or coasting steamers, without guns, 
and as he said, in talking over the resources of the South, 
" My bones will be bleached many a long year before the 
Confederate States can hope to have a navy." " State 
Rights ! " To us the question is simply inexplicable or 
absurd. And yet thousands of Americans sacrifice all for 
it. The river at Savannah is as broad as the Thames at 
Gravesend, and resembles that stream very much in the 
color of its waters and the level natures of its shores. 
Rice-fields bound it on either side, as far down as the influ- 
ence of the fresh water extends, and the eye wanders over a 
flat expanse of mud and water and green oziers and rushes, 
till its search is arrested on the horizon by the unfailing 
line of forest. In the fields here and there are the white- 
washed, square, wooden huts in which the slaves dwell, 
looking very like the beginnings of the camp in the Crimea. 
At one point a small fort, covering a creek by which gun- 
boats could get up behind Savannah, displayed its " garri- 
son" on the walls, and lowered its flag to salute the small 
blue ensign at the fore, which proclaimed the presence of 
the Commodore- of the Naval Forces of Georgia on board 
our steamer. The guns on the parapet were mostly field- 
pieces, mounted on frameworks of wood instead of regular 
carriages. There is no mistake about the spirit of these 
people. They seize upon every spot of 'vantage ground and 
prepare it for defence. There were very few ships in the 
river ; the yacht Camilla, better known as the America, the 
property of Captain Deasy, and several others of those few 
sailing under British colors, for most of the cotton ships are 
gone. After steaming down the river about twelve miles 
the sea opened out to the sight, and on a long, marshy, nar- 
row island near the bar, which was marked by the yellowish 
surf, Fort Pulaski threw out the Confederate flag to the air 
of the Georgian 1st of May. The water was too shallow to 
permit the steamer to go up to the jetty, and the party 
landed at the wharf in boats. A guard was on duty at the 
landing — tall, stout young fellows, in various uniforms, oj: 
in rude mufti, in which the Garibaldian red shirt and felt 
slouched hats predominated. They were armed with 
smooth-bore muskets (date 18&1), quite new, and their 
5 



ili 50 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

bayonets, barrels and locks were bright and clean. The 
officer on duty was dressed in the blue frock-coat dear to 
|i the British Linesman in days gone by, with brass buttons, 

emblazoned with the arms of the State, a red silk sash, and 
I glazed kepi, and straw-colored gauntlets. Several wooden 

huts, with flower-gardens in front, were occupied by the offi- 
t! cers of the garrison; others were used as hospitals, and 

were full of men suffering from measles of a mild type. A 
few minutes' walk led us to the fort, which is an irregular 
pentagon, with the base line or curtain face inlands, and 
the other faces casemated and bearing on the approaches. 
The curtain, which is simply crenellated, is covered by a 
Redan surrounded by a deep ditch, inside the parapet of 
which are granite platforms ready for the reception of guns. 
The parapet is thick, and the scarp and counterscarp are 
faced with solid masonry. A drawbridge affords access to 
the interior of the Redan, whence the gate of the fort is 
approached across a deep and broad moat, which is crossed 
by another drawbridge. As the Commodore entered the 
Redan the guns of the fort broke out into a long salute, and 
the band at the gate struck up almost as noisy a welcome. 
Inside, the parade presented a scene of life and animation 
very unlike the silence of the city we had left. Men were 
busy clearing out the casemates, rolling away stores and 
casks of ammunition and provisions, others were at work at 
the gin and shears, others building sand-bag traverses to 
guard the magazine doors, as though expecting an immedi- 
ate attack. Many officers were strolling under the shade of 
an open gallery at the side of the curtain which contained 
• '■ \ their quarters in the lofty bomb-proof casemates. Some of 

I them had seen service in Mexico or border warfare ; some 

I had travelled over Italian and Crimean battle-fields ; others 

were West Point graduates of the regular army ; others 
I young planters, clerks, or civilians, who rushed with ardor 

i into the First Georgian Regiment. The garrison of the 

', I fort is some six hundred and fifty men, and fully that num- 

j I ber were in and about the work, their tents being pitched 

'I I inside the Redan or on the terreplein of the parapets. The 

walls are exceedingly solid and well built of gray brick, 
li ! strong as iron, and upward of six feet in thickness, the case- 

.jj mates and bomb-proofs being lofty, airy, and capacious as 

" '"' ' any I have ever seen, though there is not quite depth 

enough between the walls at the salient and the gun-car- 
riages. The work is intended for one hundred and twenty- 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA. 



51 



eight guns, of which about one fourth are mounted on the 
casemates. They are long 32's, with a few 42 's, and co- 
lumbiads. The armaments will be exceeding heavy when 
all the guns are mounted, and they are fast getting the ten- 
inch columbiads into position en barbette. Everything 
which could bie required, except mortars, was in abundance 
— the platforms and gun carriages are solid and well made, 
the embrasures of the casemates are admirably constructed, 
and the ventilation of the bomb-proof carefully provided for. 
There are three furnaces for heating red-hot shot. Nor is 
discipline neglected, and the officers with whom I went 
round the works were as sharp in tone and manner to their 
men as volunteers well could be, though the latter often 
are enlisted for only three years by the State of Georgia. 
An excellent lunch was spread in the casemated bomb-proof, 
which served as the Colonel's quarter, and before sunset the 
party were steaming towards Savannah through a tideway 
full of leaping sturgeoii and porpoises, leaving the garrison 
intent on the approach of a large ship, which had her sails 
aback off the bar and hoisted the Stars and Stripes, but 
which turned out to be nothing more formidable than a 
Liverpool cotton ship. It will take some hard blows before 
Georgia is driven to let go her grip of Fort Pulaski. The 
channel is very narrow, and passes close to the guns of the 
fort. The means of completing the armament have been 
furnished by the stores of Norfolk Navy Yard; where be- 
tween seven hundred and eight hundred guns have fallen 
into the hands of the Confederates; and, if there are no 
columbiads among them, the Merrimac and other ships, 
which have been raised, as we hear, with guns uninjured, 
will yield up their Dahlgrens to turn their muzzles against 
their old masters. 

May 2. — May-day was so well kept yesterday that the 
exhausted editors cannot " bring out " their papers, and 
consequently there is no news ; but there is, nevertheless, 
much to be said concerning " Our President's " Message, 
and there is a suddenness of admiration for pacific tendencies 
which can with difficulty be accounted for, unless the news 
from the North these last few days has something to do with 
it. Not a word now about an instant march on Washing- 
ton ! No more threats to seize on Faneuil Hall ! The 
Georgians are by no means so keen as the Carolinians on 
their border — nay, they are not so belligerent to-day as 



:■!, 



52 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

they were a week ago. Mr. Jefferson Davis's Message is 
praised for its " moderation," and for other qualities which 
,| were by no means in such favor while the Sumter fever was 

at its height. Men look grave and talk about the inter- 
ference of England and France, which " cannot allow this 
thing to go on." But the change which has come over 
them is unmistakable, and the best men begin to look 
grave. As for me, I must prepare to open my lines of re- 
treat — my communications are in danger. 



'il* 



III 
m 



LETTER VII. 

FACTS AND OPINIONS IN REGARD TO NORTH AND SOUTH. 

Montgomery, May 16, 1861. 

Although! have written two letters since my arrival at 
Charleston, I have not been able to give an account of many 
things which have come under my notice, and which ap- 
peared to be noteworthy ; and now that I am fairly on my 
travels once more, it seems only too probable that I shall 
be obliged to pass them over altogether.^ The roaring fire 
of the revolution is fast sweeping over the prairies, and one 
must fly before it or burn. I am obliged to see all that can 
be seen of the South at once, and then, armed with such 
safeguards as I can procure, to make an effort to recover 
my communications. Bridges broken, rails torn up, tele- 
graphs pulled down — I am quite in the air, and air charged 
with powder and fire. 

One of the most extraordinary books in the world could 
be made out of the cuttings and parings of the newspapers 
which have been published within the last few days. The 
judgments, statements, asseverations of the press, every- 
where necessarily hasty, ill-sifted, and off-hand, do not 
aspire to even an ephemeral existence here. They are of 
use if they sei:ve the purpose of the moment, and of the 
little boys who commence their childhood in deceit, and 
continue to adolescence in iniquity, by giving vocal utter- 
ance to the " sensation " headings in the journals they 
retail so sharply and curtly. Talk of the superstition of 
the Middle Ages, or of the credulity of the more advanced 
periods of rural life ; laugh at the Holy Coat of Treves, or 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 53 

groan over thfe Lady of Salette ; deplore the faith in wink- 
ing pictures, or in a communique of the Moniteur ; moralize 
on the superstition which discovers more in the liquefaction- 
of the ichor of St. Gennaro than a chemical trick ; but if 
you desire to understand how far faith can see and trust 
among the people who consider themselves the most civil- 
ized and intelligent in the world, you will study the Ameri- 
can journals, and read the telegrams which appear in them. 
One day the 7th New York regiment is destroyed for the 
edification of the South, and is cut up into such small 
pieces that none of it is ever seen afterward. The next day it 
marches into Washington, or Annapolis, all the better for 
the process. Another, in order to encourage the North, it is 
said that hecatombs of dead were carried out of Fort Moul- 
trie, packed up, for easy travelling, in boxes. Again, to 
irritate both, it is credibly stated that Lord Lyons is going 
to interfere, or that an Anglo-French fleet is coming to watch 
the ports, and so on through a wild play of fancy, inexact 
in line as though the batteries were charged with the aurora 
borealis or summer lightning, instead of the respectable, 
steady, manageable offspring of acid and metal, to whose 
staid deportment we are accustomed at a moderate price for 
entrance. As is usual in such periods, the contending parties 
accuse each other of inveterate falsehood, perfidy, oppres- 
sion, and local tyranny and persecution. " Madness rules 
the hour." 

It was only a day or two ago I took up a local journal of 
considerable influence, in which were two paragraphs which 
struck me as being inexpressibly absurd. In the first it 
was stated that a gentleman who had expressed strong 
Southern sentiments in a New York hotel, had been mobbed 
and thrown into the street, and the writer indulged in some 
fitting reflections on the horrible persecution which pre- 
vailed in New York, and on the atrocity of such tyrannical 
mob-lawlessness in a civilized community. In another 
column there was a pleasant little narrative how citizens of 
Opelika, in Georgia, had waited on a certain person, who 
was "suspected" of entertaining Northern views, and had 
deported him on a rustic conveyance, known as a rail, which 
was considered by the journalist a very creditable exercise 
of public spirit. Nay, more ; in a naive paragraph relative 
to an attempt to burn the huge hotel of Willard, at Wash- 
ington, in which some hundreds of people were residing, 
the paper, to account satisfactorily for the attempt, and to 
6* 



\ • 



54 THE CIVIL WAR IN iLMERICA. 

assign some intelligible and laudable motive for it, adds, 
that he supposes it was intended to burn out the " Border 
ruifians " who were lodged there — a reproduction of the 
excuse of our Anglo -Irish lord, who apologized for setting 
fire to a cathedral, on the ground that he imagined the 
Bishop was inside. The exultation of the South when the 
flag of the United States was lowered at Sumter, has been 
answered by a shout of indignation and a battle-cry from 
the North, and the excitement at Charleston has produced a 
reflex action there, the energy of which cannot be described. 
The apathy which struck me at New York, when I landed, 
has been succeeded by violent popular enthusiasm, before 
which all Laodicean policy has melted into fervent activity. 
The truth must be, that the New York population did not 
believe in the strength and unanimity of the South, and 
that they thought the Union safe, or did not care about it. 
I can put dow-n the names of gentlemen who expressed the 
strongest opinions that the Government of the United States 
had no power to coerce the South, and who have since put 
down their names and their money to support the Govern- 
ment in the attempt to recover the forts which have been 
taken. As to the change of opinion in other quarters, 
which has been efi'ected so rapidly and miraculously, that it 
has the ludicrous air of a vulgar juggler's trick at a fair, 
the public regard it so little, that it would be unbecoming 
to waste a word about it. 

I expressed a belief in my first letter, written a few days 
after my arrival, that the South would never go back into 
the Union. The North thinks that it can coerce the South, 
and I am not prepared to say they are right or wrong; but 
I am convinced that the South can only be forced back by 
such a conquest as that which laid Poland prostrate at the 
feet of Russia. It may be that such a conquest can be 
made by the North, but success must destroy the Union as 
it has been constituted in times past. A strong Government 
must be the logical consequence of victory, and the triumph 
of the South will be attended by a similar result, for which, 
indeed, many Southerners are very well disposed. To the 
people of the Confederate States there would be no terror 
in such an issue, for it appears to me they are pining for a 
strong Government exceedingly. The North must accept ' 
it, whether they like it or not. Neither party, if such a 
term can be applied to the rest of the United States and to 
those States which disdain the authority of the Federal 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA, 55 

Government, was prepared for tTie aggressive or resisting 
power of the other. Ah-eady the Confederate States per- 
ceive that they cannot carry all before them with a rush, 
while the North have learnt that they must put forth all 
their strength to make good a tithe of their lately uttered 
threats. But the Montgomery Government are now, they say, 
anxious to gain time, and to prepare a regular army. The 
North, distracted by apprehensions of vast disturbances in 
its complicated relations, is clamoring for instant action and 
speedy consummation. The counsels of the moderate men, 
as they were called, have been utterly overruled. 

I am now, however, dealing with South Carolina, which 
has been the fons et origo of the Secession doctrines, and 
their development into the full life of the Confederate 
States. The whole foundation on which South Carolina 
rests is cotton and a certain amount of rice, or rather she 
bases her whole fabric on the necessity which exists in Eu- 
rope for those products of her soil, believing and asserting, 
as she does, that England and France cannot and will not 
do without them. Cotton, without a market, is so much 
flocculent matter encumbering the ground. Rice, without 
demand for it, is unsalable grain in store and on the field. 
Cotton at ten cents a pound is boundless prosperity, empire, 
and superiority, and rice or grain need no longer be regard- 
ed. In the matter of slave labor. South Carolina argues 
pretty much in this way : England and France require our 
products. In order to meet their wants, we must cultivate 
our soil. There is only one way of doing so. The white 
man cannot live on our land at certain seasons of the year ; 
he cannot work in the manner required by the crops. We 
must, therefore, employ a race suited to the labor, and that 
is a race which will only work when it is obliged to do so. 
That race was imported from Africa, under the sanction of 
the law, by our ancestors, when we were a British colony, 
and it has been fostered by us, so that its increase here has 
been as that of the most flourishing people in the world. In 
other places where its labor was not productive, or impera- 
tively essential,, that race has been made free, sometimes 
with disastrous consequences to itself and to industry. But 
we will not make it free. We cannot do so. We hold that 
Slavery is essential to our existence as producers of what 
Europe requires ; nay, more, we maintain it is in the ab- 
stract right in principle ; and some of us go so far as to 
maintain that the only proper form of society, according to 



56 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEEICA. 

the law of God and the exigencies of man, is that which 
has Slavery as its basis. As to the slave, he is happier far 
in his state of servitude, more civilized and religious than 
he is or could be if free or in his native Africa. • 

I have already endeavored to describe the portion of the 
State through which I travelled, and the aspect of Charles- 
ton, and I will now proceed, at the risk of making this 
letter longer than it should be, to make a few observations 
on matters which struck me during my visit to one or two 
of the planters of the many who were kind enough to give 
me invitations to their residences in the State. 

Early one fine morning I started in a coasting steamer to 
visit a plantation in the Pedee and Maccamaw district, in 
the Island coast of the State, north of Charleston. The 
only source of uneasiness in the mind of the party arose 
from the report that the United States squadron was coming 
to blockade the port, which would have cut off our line of 
retreat, and compelled us to make a long detour and a 
somewhat difficult journey by land, seeing that the roads 
are mere sand tracts, as the immense number of rivers and 
creeks offers excuse for not improving the means of land 
communication. Passing Sumter, on which men are busily 
engaged, under the Confederate flag, in making good dam- 
ages, and mounting guns, we put out a few miles to sea, and 
with the low sandy shore, dotted with soldiers, and guard- 
houses, and clumps of trees, on our left, in a few hours 
pass the Santee River, and enter an estuary into which the 
Pedee and Maccamaw Rivers run a few miles further to the 
northwest. The arid, barren, pine-covered sand-hills, which 
form the shores of this estuary, are guarded by rude bat- 
teries, mounted with heavy guns, and manned by the State 
troops, some of whom we can see strolling along the beach, 
or, with arms glancing in the sunlight, pacing up and down 
on their posts. On the left hand side there are said to be 
plantations, the sites of which are marked by belts of trees, 
and after we had proceeded a few miles from the sea, the 
steamer ran alongside a jetty and pier, which was crowded 
by men in uniform, waiting for the news, and for ■ supplies 
of creature comforts. 

Ladies were cantering along the fine hard beach, and some 
gigs and tax-carts, fully laden, rolled along very much as 
one sees them at Scarborough. The soldiers on the pier 
were all gentlemen of the county. Some, dressed in gray 
tunics and yellow facings, in high felt hats and plumes, and 



THE CIVIL WAB IN AMERICA. 57 

jack-boots, would have done no discredit in face, figure, 
and bearing, to the gayest cavaliers who ever thundered at 
the heels of Prince Rupert. Their horses, full of Carolinian 
fire and metal, stood picketed under the trees along the 
margin of the beach. Among these men, who had been 
doing the duty of common troopers in patrolling the sea- 
coast, were gentlemen possessed of large estates and prince- 
ly fortunes ; and one who stood among them was pointed 
out to me as captain of a company for whose uses his 
liberality provided unbounded daily libations of champagne, 
and the best luxuries which French ingenuity can safely 
imprison in those well-known caskets, with which Crimean 
warriors were not unacquainted at the close of the campaign. 
They were eager for news, which was shouted out to then^ 
by their friends in the steamer, and one was struck by the 
intimate personal cordiality and familiar acquaintance which 
existed among them. Three- heavy guns, mounted in an 
earthwork, defended by palisades, covered' the beach and 
landing-place, and the garrison was to have been reenforced 
by a regiment from Charleston, which, however, had not 
got in readiness to go up on our steamer, owing to some 
little difficulties between the Volunteers, their officers, and 
the Quartermaster-general's department. 

I mention these particulars to give an idea of the state of 
defence in which South Carolina holds itself, for, unless 
Georgetown, which lies at the head of this inlet, could be 
considered an object of attack, one seeks in vain for any 
reason to induce an enemy to make his appearance in this 
direction. A march on Charleston by land would be an 
operation of extreme difficulty, through a series of sand- 
hills, alternating with marshes, water-course, rivers, and 
flooded rice-fields. As to Georgetown, which we have now 
reached, nothing can be said by way of description more 
descriptive than the remark of its inhabitants, that it was a 
finished town a hundred years ago. It is a dosy, sleepy, 
sandy, lifeless, straggling village, with wooden houses drawn 
up in right lines on the margins of great, straight, grass- 
grown pathways, lined with trees, and known to the natives 
as streets. 

As the Nina approaches the tumble-down wharf, two or 
three citizens advance from the shade of shaky sheds to 
welcome us, and a few country vehicles and light phaetons 
are drawn forth from the same shelter to receive the -passen- 
gers, while the negro boys and girls, who have been playing 



k 

it 



58 THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA. 

upon the bales of cotton and barrels of rice, wbich repre- 
sent tbe trade of the place on the wharf, take up commanding 
positions for the better observation of our proceedings. 
One or two small yachts and coasting schooners are moored 
by the banks of the broad, full stream, the waters of which 
we had previously crossed in our journey from the dismal 
swamp. 

There is an air of quaint simplicity and old-fashioned 
quiet about Georgetown, refreshingly antagonistic to the 
bustle and tumult of most American cities, and one can, 
without much stretch of imagination, fancy the old loyal 
burghers in cocked hats, small-swords, and long, square-cut 
sober suits, stalking solemnly down its streets, rejoicing in 
^the progress of the city which recalled the name of the 
King and the old country, or hastening down to the river's 
side to hear the tidings brought from home by the Bristol 
bark that has just anchored in the stream. Instead thereof, 
however, there' are the tall, square forms of eager citizens 
bowed over their newspapers in the shade before the bar- 
room, or the shuffling negro delighting in the sunshine, and 
kicking up the dust in the centre of the road as he goes on 
his errand. 

While waiting for our vehicle, we enjoyed the hospitality 
of one of our friends, who took us into an old-fashioned 
angular wooden mansion, more than a century old, still 
sound in every timber, and testifying, in its quaint wain- 
scotings and the rigid framework of door and window, to 
the durability of its cypress timbers, and the preservative 
character of the atmosphere. In early days it was the crack 
house of the old settlement, and the residence of the founder 
of the female branch of the family of our host, who now 
only makes it his halting-place when passing to and fro 
between Charleston and his plantation, leaving it the year 
round in charge of an old servant and her grandchild. 
Rose trees and flowering shrubs clustered before the porch, 
and filled the garden in front, and the establishment gave 
one a good idea of a London merchant's retreat about Chel- 
sea a hundred and fifty years ago. 

At length we were ready for our journey, and, mounted 
in two light covered vehicles, proceeded along the sandy 
track which, after a while, led us to a cut, deep in the bosom 
of the woods, where silence was only broken by the cry of 
a woodpecker, the boom of a crane, or the sharp challenge 
of the jay. For miles we passed through the shades of this 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 59 

forest, meeting only two or three vehicles containing female 
planterdom on little excursions of pleasure or business, who 
smiled their welcome as we passed. Not more than twice 
in a drive of two hours did we come upon any settlement or 
get a view of any white man's plantation, and then it was 
only when we had emerged from the wood and got out upon 
the broad, brown plains, where bunds, and water-dykes, and 
machinery for regulating the flooding of the lake indicated the 
scenes of labor. These settlements consisted of rows of some 
ten or twelve quadrangular wooden sheds, supported upon 
bricks, so as to allow the air, the children, and the chickens 
to play beneath ; sometimes with brickwork chimneys at the 
side, occasionally with ruder contrivances of mud and wood- 
Avork to serve the same purpose. 

Arrived at a deep chocolate-colored stream, called Black 
River, full of fish and alligators, we find a flat large enough 
to accommodate vehicles and passengers, and propelled by 
two negroes pulling upon a stretched rope, in the manner 
usual in the ferryboats of Switzerland, ready for our re- 
ception. Another drive through a more open country, and 
we reach a fine grove of pine and live oak, which melts 
away into a shrubbery, guarded by a rustic gateway, passing 
through which' we are brought by a sudden turn into the 
planter's house, buried in trees, which dispute with the 
green sward, and with wild flower beds, every yard of the 
space which lies between the hall-door and the waters of 
the Pedee ; and in a few minutes, as we gaze over the ex- 
panse of flelds, just tinged with green by the first life of the 
early rice crops, majked by the deep water-cuts, and bound- 
ed by a fringe of unceasing forest, the chimneys of the 
steamer we had left at Georgetown gliding, as it were, 
through the fields, indicate the existence of another naviga- 
ble river still beyond. 

Leaving with regret the veranda which commanded so en- 
chanting a foreground of flowers, rare shrubbery, and 
bearded live oaks, with each graceful sylvan outline distinct- 
ly penciled upon the waters of the river, we enter the house, 
and are reminded by its low-browed, old-fashioned rooms, of 
the country houses yet to be found in parts of Ireland or the 
Scottish border, with additions made by the luxury and love, 
of foreign travel of more than one generation of educated 
Southern planters. Paintings from Italy illustrate the walls 
in juxtaposition with interesting portraits of early Colonial 
Governors and their lovely womankind, limned with no un- 



60 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

certain hand, and full of the vigor of touch and naturalness 
of drapery, of which Copley has left us too few exemplars, 
and one portrait of Benjamin West claims for itself such 
honor as his own pencil can give. An excellent library, 
filled with collections of French and English classics, and 
with those ponderous editions of Voltaire, Rousseau, the 
Memoires pour Servir, books of travel and history, such as 
delighted our forefathers in the. last century, and many 
works of American and general history, afford ample occupa- 
tion for a rainy day. But alas ! these, and all good things 
which the house affords, can be enjoyed but for a brief sea- 
son. Just as nature has expanded every charm, developed 
every grace, and clothed the scene with all the beauty of 
opened flower, of ripening grain, and of mature vegetation, on 
the wings of the wind the poisoned breath comes borne to the 
home of the white man, and he must fly before it or perish. 
The books lie unopened on their shelves, the flower blooms 
and dies unheeded, and, pity 'tis 'tis true, the old Madeira, 
garnered 'neath the roof, settles down for a fresh lease of life, 
and sets about its solitary task of acquiring a finer flavor for the 
infrequent lips of its banished master and his welcome visi- 
tors. This is the story, at least, that we hear on all sides, 
and such is the tale repeated to us beneath the porch, when 
the full moon enhances, while softening, the loveliness of the 
scene, and the rich melody of hundreds of mocking-birds 
fills the grove. 

Within these hospitable doors Horace might banquet 
better than he did with Nasidienus, and drink such wine as 
can be only found among the descendants of an ancestry 
who, improvident enough in all else, learned the wisdom of 
bottling up choice old Bual and Sercial ere the demon of 
odium had dried up their generous sources for ever. To 
these must be added excellent bread, ingenious varieties of 
the gallette, compounded now of rice and now of Indian 
meal, delicious butter and fruits, all good of their kind. 
What more is needed for one who agrees with Mr. Disraeli 
in thinking bread and wine man's two first luxuries and his 
best ? And is there anything bitter rising up from the bot- 
iil tom of the social bowl? My black friends who attend on 

!,iti! ' me are grave as Mussulman Khitmutgars. They are attired 

in liveries, and wear white cravats and Berlin gloves. At 
night, when we retire, off they go to their outer darkness in 
the small settlement of negrohood, which is separated from 
our house by a wooden palisade. Their fidelity is undoubt- 



■J 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 61 

ed. The house breathes an air of security. The doors and 
windows are unlocked. There is but one gun, a fowling- 
piece, on the premises. No planter hereabouts has any 
dread of his slaves. 

But I have seen within the short time that I have been 
here in this part of the world several dreadful accounts of 
the murder and violence in which masters suffered at the 
hands of their slaves. There is something suspicious in the 
constant, never-ending statement, that " We are not afraid of 
our slaves." The curfew and the night patrol in the streets, 
the prisons and watch-houses, and the police regulations 
prove that strict supervision, at all events, is needed and 
necessary. My host is a kind man and a good master. If 
slaves are happy anywhere, they should be so with him. 

These people are fed by their master. They have up- 
ward of half a pound per diem of fat pork, and corn in 
abundance. They rear poultry, and sell their chickens and 
eggs to the house. They are clothed by their master. He 
keeps them in sickness as in health. Now and then there 
are gifts of tobacco and molasses for the deserving. There 
was little labor going on in the fields, for the rice has been 
just exerting itself to get its head above water. These 
fields yield plentifully, for the waters of the river are fat, 
and they are let in, whenever the planters require it, by 
means of floodgates and small canals, through which the 
flats can carry their loads of grain to the river for loading 
the steamers. 



LETTER VIII 



PACTS AND OPINIONS AT THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL. 
MONTGOMEKY, CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES ) 

OF America, May 8, 1861. J 

In my last letter I gave an account of §uch matters as 
passed under my notice on my way to this city, which I 
reached, as you are aware, on the night of Saturday, May 4. 
I am on difficult ground, the land is on fire, the earth is 
shaking with the tramp of armed men, and the very air is 
hot with passion. My communications are cut off*, or are at 
6 



^ 



62 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

best accidental, and .in order to re-open them I must get 
further away from them, paradoxical as the statement may 
appear to be. It is impossible to know what is going on in 
the North, and it is almost the same to learn what is doing 
in the South out of eyeshot ; it is useless to inquire what 
news is sent to you to England. Events hurry on with 
tremendous rapidity, and even the lightning lags behind 
them. The people of the South at last are aware that the 
"Yankees " are preparing to support the Government of the 
United States, and that the Secession can only be main- 
tained by victory in the field. There has been a change in 
their war policy. They now aver that " they only want to 
be let alone," and they declare that they do not intend to 
take Washington, and that it was merely as a feint they 
spoke about it. The fact is, there are even in the compact 
and united South men of moderate and men of extreme 
tiews, and the general tone of the whole is regulated by the 
preponderance of one or other at the moment. I have no 
doubt on my mind that the Government here intended to 
attack and occupy Washington — not the least that they had 
it much at heart to reduce Fort Pickens as soon as possible. 
Now some of their friends say that it will be a mere matter 
of convenience whether they attack Washington or not, and 
that, as for Fort Pickens, they will certainly let it alone, at 
all events for the present, inasmuch as the menacing attitude 
of General Bragg obliges the enemy to keep a squadron of 
their best ships there, and to retain a force of regulars they 
can ill spare, in a position where they must lose enormously 
from diseases incidental to the climate. They have dis- 
covered, too, that the position is of little value so long as 
the United States hold Tortugas and Key West. But the 
Confederates are preparing for the conflict, and when they 
have organized their forces, they will make, I am satitj^fied, a 
very resolute advance all along the line. They are at present 
strong enough, they suppose, in their domestic resources, 
and in the difficulties presented to a hostile force by the 
nature of the country, to bid defiance to invasion, or, at all 
events, to inflict a very severe chastisement on the invaders, 
and their excited manner of speech so acts upon the minds 
that they begin to think they can defy, not merely the 
United States, but the world. Thus it is that they declare 
they never can be conquered, that they wall die to a man^ 
woman, and child first, and that if fifty thousand, or any 
number of thousands of Black Republicans get one hundred 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 63 

miles into Virginia, not one man of them shall ever get out 
alive. Behind all this talk, however, there is immense 
energy, great resolution, and fixed principles of action. 
Their strategy consists in keeping quiet till they have their 
troops well in hand, in such numbers and discipline as shall 
give them fair grounds for expecting success in any cam- 
paign with the United States troops. They are preparing 
with vigor to render the descent of the Mississippi impossir 
ble, by erecting batteries on the commanding levees or 
embankments which hem in its waters for upward of eight 
hundred miles of bank, and they are occupying, as far as 
they can, all the strategical points of attack or defence 
within their borders. When everything is ready, it is not 
improbable that Mr. Jefferson Davis will take command of 
the army, for he is reported to have a high ambition to 
acquire reputation as a general, and in virtue of his office he 
is Generalissimo of the Armies of the Confederate States. 
It will be remarked that this plan rests on the assumption 
that the United States cannot or will not wage an offensive 
war, or obtain any success in their attempts to recover the 
forts and other property of the Federal Government. They 
firmly believe the war will not last a year, and that 1862 
will behold a victorious, compact, slave-holding Confederate 
power of fifteen States under a strong government, prepared 
to hold its own against the world, or that portion of it 
which m-ay attack it. I now but repeat the sentiments and 
expectations of those around me. They believe in the irre- 
sistible power of cotton, in the natural alliance between man- 
ufacturing England and France and the cotton producing 
Slave States, in the force of their simple tariff, and in the 
interest which arise out of a system of free-trade, which, 
however, by a rigorous legislation they will interdict to their 
neighbors in the Free States, and only open for the benefit 
of their foreign customers. Commercially, and politically, 
and militarily, they have made up their minds, and never 
was there such confidence exhibited by any people in the 
future as they have, or pretended to have, in their destiny. 
Listen to their programme. 

It is intended to buy up all the cotton crop which can be 
brought into the market at an average price, and to give 
bon"ds of the Confederate States for the amount, these bonds 
being, as we know, secured by the export duty on cotton. 
The Government, with this cotton crop in its own hands, 
will use it as a formidable machine of war, for cotton can do 



64 THE CIVIIi WAR IN AMERICA. 

\ anything, from the establishment of an empire to the secur- 
ing of a shirt button. It is at once king and subject, master 
and servant, captain and soldier, artilleryman and gun. Not 
one bale of cotton will be permitted to enter the Northern 
States. It will be made an offence punishable with tre- 
mendous penalties, among which confiscation of property, 
enormous fines, and even the penalty of death, are enume- 
rated, to send cotton into the Free States. Thus Lowell 
and its kindred factories will be reduced to ruin, it is said, 
and the North to the direst distress. If Manchester can get 
cotton and Lowell cannot, there are good times coming for 
the mill-owners. 

The planters have agreed among themselves to hold over 
one-half of their cotton crop for their own purposes and for 
the culture of their fields, and to sell the other to the Gov- 
ernment. For each bale of cotton, as I hear, a bond will 
be issued on the fair average price of cotton in the market, 
and this bond must be taken at par as a circulating medium 
within the limits of the Slave States. This forced circula- 
tion will be secured by the act of the Legislature. The 
bonds' will bear interest at 10 per cent., and they will be 
issued on the faith and security of the proceeds of the duty 
of one-eighth of a cent on every pound of cotton exported. 
All vessels loading with cotton will be obliged to enter into 
bonds, or give security that they will not carry their cargoes 
to Northern ports, or let it reach Northern markets to their 
knowledge. The Government will sell the cotton for cash 
to foreign buyers, and will thus raise funds amply sufficient, 
they contend, for all purposes. I make these bare state- 
ments, and I leave to political economists the discussion of 

* the question which may and will arise out of the acts of the 
Confederate States. The Southerners argue that by breaking 
from their unnatural alliance with the North they will save 
upward of $47,000,000, or nearly £10,000,000 sterling an- 
nually. The estimated value of the annual cotton crop is 
$200,000,000. On this the North formerly made at least 
#10,000,000, by advance, interest and exchanges, which in 
all came to fully 5 per cent, on the whole of the crop. 
Again, the tariff to raise revenue sufficient for the mainte- 
nance of the Government of the Southern Confederacy is far 
less than that which is required by the Government of the 
United States. The Confederate States propose to have a 
tariff which will be about 12 J per cent, on imports, which 
will yield $25,000,000. The Northern tariff is 30 per cent., 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 65 

and as the South took from the North 870,000,000 worth of 
manufactured goods and produce, they contribute, they assert, 
to the maintenance of the North to the extent of the differ- 
ence between the tax sufficient for the support of their Gov- 
ernment, and that which is required for the support of the 
Federal Government. Now they will save the difference 
between 30 per cent, and 12 J per cent. (17J per cent), which 
amounts to $37,000,000, which, added to the saving on 
commissions, exchanges, advances, &c., makes up the good 
round sum which I have put down higher up. The South- 
erners are firmly convinced that they have " kept the North 
going " by the prices they have paid for the protected articles 
of their manufacture, and they hold out to Sheffield, to Man- 
chester, to Leeds, to Wolverhampton, to Dudley, to Paris, to 
Lyons, to Bordeaux, to all the centres of English manufac- 
turing life, as of French taste and luxury, the tempting baits 
of new and eager and hungry markets. If their facts and 
statistics are accurate, there can be no doubt of the justice 
of their deductions on many points ; but they can scarcely 
be correct in assuming that they will bring the United States 
to destruction by cutting off from Lowell the 600,000 bales 
of cotton which she usually consumes. One great fact, how- 
ever, is unquestionable — the Government has in its hands 
the souls, the wealth, and the hearts of the people. They 
will give anything — money, labor, life itself — to carry out 
their theories. " Sir," said an ex-Governor of this State to 
me to-day, " sooner than submit to fjjbe North, we will all 
become subject to Great Britain again." The same gentle- 
man is one of the many who have given to the Government 
a large portion of their cotton crop every year as a free-will 
offering. In his instance his gift is one of 500 bales of cot- 
ton, or £5,000 per annum, and the papers teem with accounts 
of similar " patriotism " and devotion. The ladies are all 
making sand-bags, cartridges, and uniforms, and, if possible, 
they are more fierce than the men. The time for mediation 
is past, if it ever were at hand or present at all ; and it is 
scarcely possible now to prevent the processes of phleboto- 
mization which are supposed to secure peace and repose. 

There was no intelligence of much interest on Sunday, 
but there is a general belief that Arkansas and Missouri 
will send in their adhesion to the Confederacy this week, 
and the Commissioners from Virginia are hourly expected. 
The attitude of that State, however, gives rise to apprehen- 
sions lest there may be a division of her strength ; and any 
6* 



66 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

aggression on her territories by the Federal Government, 
such as that contemplated in taking possession cf Alexandria, 
would be hailed by the Montgomery Government with sin- 
cere joy, as it would, they think, move the State to more 
rapid action and decision. 

Montgomery is on an undulating plain, and covers ground 
» large enough for a city of two hundred thousand inhabi- 

tants, but its population is only twelve thousand. Indeed, 
the politicians here appear to dislike large cities, but the 
city designers certainly prepare to take them if they come. 
There is a large negro population, and a considerable 
number of a color which forces me to doubt the evidences 
of my senses rather than the statements made to me by 
some of my friends, that the planters affect the character of 
parent in their moral relations merely with the negro race. 
A waiter at the hotel — a tall, handsome young fellow, with 
the least tinge of color in his cheek, not as dark as the 
majority of Spaniards or Italians — astonished me in my 
ignorancs to-day^hen, in reply to a question asked by one 
of our party, in consequence of a discussion on the point, 
he informed me he " was a slave." The man, as he said so, 
looked confused ; his manner altered. He had been talking 
familiarly to us, but the moment he replied, " I am a slave. 
Sir," his loquacity disappeared, and he walked hurriedly 
and in silence out of the room. The river Alabama, on 
which the city rests, is a wide, deep stream, now a quarter 
of a mile in breadth^ with a current of four miles an hour. 
It is navigable to Mobile, upward of four hundred miles, 
and steamers ascend its waters for many miles beyond this 
into the interior. The country around is well wooded, and 
is richly cultivated in broad fields of cotton and Indian corn, 
but the neighborhood is not healthy, and deadly feveis are 
said to prevail at certain seasons of the year. There is not 
much animation in the streets, except when " there is a 
difficulty among the citizens," or in the eternal noise of the 
hotel steps and bars. I was told this morning by the hotel 
keeper that I was probably the only person in the house, 
or about it, who had not loaded revolvers in his pockets, 
and one is aware occasionally of an unnatural rigidity 
llii '; scarcely attributable to the osseous structure in the persons 

• ,^ of those who pass one in the crowded passages. 

« i Monday, May 6. — To-day I visited the Capitol, where 

the Provisional Congress is sitting. On leaving the hotel, 
which is like a small Willard's, so far as the crowd in the 



(( 



I 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 67 

hall is concerned, my attention was attracted to a group of 
people to whom a man was holding forth in energetic sen- 
tences. The day was hot, but I pushed near to the spot, 
for I like to hear a stump speech, or to pick up a stray 
morsel of divinity in the via sacra of strange cities, and it 
appeared as though the speaker was delivering an oration 
or a sermon. The crowd was small. Three or four idle 
men in rough, hom3sp„m, makeshift uniforms, leaned against 
the iron rails inclosing a small pond of foul, green-looking 
water, surrounded by brick-work, which decorates the 
space in front of the Exchange Hotel. The speaker stood 
on an empty deal packing case. A man in a cart was lis- 
tening with a lack-lustre eye to the address. Some three 
or four others, in a sort of vehicle, which might eithsr be a 
hoarse or a piano-van, had also drawn up for the benefit of 
the address. Five or six other men, in long black coats 
and high hats, somj whittling sticks, and chewing tobacco, 
and discharging streams of discolored saliva, completed the 
group. "Nine h'hun' nerd and fifty dollars ! Only nine 
h-hun'nerd and fifty dollars offered for him," exclaimed the- 
man, in the tone of injured dignity, remonstrance, and sur- 
prise, which can be insinuated by all true auctioneers into 
the dryest numerical statements. " Will no one make any 
advance on nine hundred and fifty dollars? " A man near 
me opened his mouth, spat, and said, " Twenty-five." 
" Only nine hundred and seventy-five dollars offered for 
him. Why, at's radaklous — only nine hundred and seventy- 
five dollars ! Will no one," &c. Beside the orator auc- 
tioneer stood a stout young man of five-and-twenty years of 
age, with a bundle in his hand. He was a muscular fellow, 
broad-shouldered, narrow-flanked, but rather small in 
stature ; he had on a broad, greasy, old wide-awake, a blue 
jacket, a coarse cotton shirt, loose and rather ragged trow- 
sers, and broken shoes. The expression of his face was heavy 
and sad, but it was by no means disagreeable, in spite of his 
thick lips, broad nostrils, and high cheek-bones. On his head 
was wool instead of hair. I am neither sentimentalist, nor 
Black Republican, nor negro -worshiper, but I confess the 
sight caused a strange thrill through my heart. I tried in vain 
to make myself familiar with the fact that I could, for the 
sum of nine hundred and seventy-five dollars, become as 
absolutely the owner of that mass of blood, bones, sinew, 
flesh, and brains, as of the horse which stood by my side. 
There was no sophistry which could persuade me the man 



Hi! 



Tliili! 



68 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

was not a man — he was, indeed, by no means my brother, 
but assuredly he was a fellow creature. I have seen slave 
markets in the East, but somehow or other the Orientalism 
of the scene cast a coloring over the nature of the sales 
there which deprived them of the disagreeable harshness 
and matter-of-fact character of the transaction before me. 
For Turk, or Smyrniote, or Egyptian, to buy and sell 
slaves, seemed rather suited to the eternal fitness of things 
than otherwise. The turbaned, shawled, loose-trowsered, 
pipe-smoking merchants, speaking an unknown tongue, 
looked as if they were engaged in a legitimate business. 
One knew that their slaves would not be condemned to any 
very hard labor, and that they would be in some sort, the 
inmates of ' the family and members of it. Here it grated 
on my ear to listen to the familiar tones of the English 
tongue as the medium by which the transfer was effected, 
and it was painful to see decent-looking men in European 
garb engaged in the work before me. Perchance these im- 
pressions may wear off, for I meet many English people 
who are the most strenuous advocates of the slave system, 
although it is true that their perceptions may be quickened 
to recognize its beauties by their participation in the profits. 
The negro was sold to one of the bystanders, and walked 
off with his bundle, God knows where. " Niggers is 
cheap," was the only remark of the bystanders. I continued 
my walk up a long, wide, straight street, or, more properly, 
an unpaved sandy road, lined with wooden houses on each 
side, and with trees by the side of the footpath. The lower 
of the two stories is generally used as a shop, mostly of the 
miscellaneous store kind, in which all sorts of articles are 
to be had, if there is any money to pay for them ; and, in 
the present case, if any faith is to be attached to the con- 
spicuous notices in the windows, credit is of no credit, and 
the only thing that can be accepted in exchange for the goods 
is " cash." At the end of this long street, on a moderate 
eminence, stands a whitewashed or painted edifice, with a 
gaunt, lean portico, supported on lofty, lanky pillars, and 
surmounted by a subdued and dejected-looking little cupola. 
Passing an unkempt lawn, through a very shabby little gate- 
way in a brick frame, and we ascend a flight of steps into a 
hall, from which a double staircase conducts us to the ves- 
tibule of the Chamber. Anything much more offensive to 
the eye cannot well be imagined than the floor and stairs. 
They are stained deeply by tobacco juice, which have left 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 69 

its marks on the white stone steps, and on the base of the 
pillars outside. In the hall which we have entered there 
are two tables, covered with hams, oranges, bread and fruits, 
for the refreshment of members and visitors, over which two 
sable goddesses, in portentous crinoline, preside. The door 
of the chamber is open, and we are introduced into a lofty, 
well-lighted and commodious apartment, in which the Con- 
gress of the Confederate States hold its deliberations. A 
gallery runs half round the room, and is half filled with 
visitors — country cousins, and farmers of cotton and maize, 
and, haply, seekers of places, great or small. A light and 
low semi-circular screen separates the body of the house, 
where the members sit, from the space under the gallery, 
which is appropriated to ladies and visitors. The clerk sits 
at a desk above this table, and on a platform behind him 
are the desk and chair of the presiding officer or Speaker of 
the Congress. Over his head hangs the unfailing portrait 
of Washington, and a small engraving, in a black frame, of 
a gentleman unknown to me. Seated in the midst of 
them, at a Senator's desk, I was permitted to " assist," in 
the French sense, at the deliberations of the Congress. Mr. 
Howell Cobb took the chair, and a white-headed clergyman 
was called upon to say prayers, which he 4id, upstanding, 
with outstretched bands and closed eyes, by the side of the 
Speaker, The prayer was long and sulphureous. One 
more pregnant with gunpowder I never heard, nor could 
aught like it have been heard since 



■■D 



" Pulpit, drum ecclesiastic, 
Was beat with fist instead of a stick." 

The Rev. gentleman prayed that the Almighty might be 
pleased to inflict on the arms of the United States such a 
defeat, that it might be the example of signal punishment for- 
ever ; that this President might be blessed, and that the 
other President might be the other thing ; that the gallant, 
devoted young soldiers, who were fighting for their country, 
might not suffer from exposure to the weather or from the 
bullets of their enemies ; and that the base mercenaries 
who were fighting on the other side might come, to sure 
and swift destruction ; and so on. 

Are right and wrong mere geographical expressions ? The 
prayer was over at last, and the House proceeded to business. 
Although each State has several delegates in Congress, it is 
only entitled to one vote on a strict division. In this way some 



70 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



:1f 



curious decisions may be arrived at, as the smallest State is 
equal to the largest, and a majority of the Florida repre- 
sentatives may neutralize a vote of all the Georgia represen- 
tatives. For example, Georgia has ten delegates ; Florida 
has onl)'' three. The vote of Florida, however, is deter- 
mined by the action of any two of its three representatives, 
and these two may, on a division, throw the one State vote 
into the scale against that of Georgia, for which ten mem- 
bers are agreed. The Congress transacts all its business 
in secret session, and finds it a very agreeable and commend- 
able way of doing it. Thus, to-day, for example, after the 
presentation of a few unimportant motions and papers, the 
Speaker rapped his desk, and announced that the House 
would go into secret session, and that all who were not 
members should leave. 

As I was returning to the hotel there was another small 
crowd at the fountain. Another auctioneer, a fat, flabby, 
perspiring, puffy man, was trying to sell a negro girl who 
stood on the deal-box beside him. She was dressed pretty 
much like a London servant girl of the lower order out of 
place, except that her shoes were mere shreds of leather 
patches, and her bonnet would have scarce passed muster in 
the New Cut. She, too, had a little bundle in her hand, 
and looked out at the buyers from a pair of large sad eyes. 
"Niggers were cheap;" still here was this young woman 
going for an upset price of 8610, but no one would bid, 
and the auctioneer, after vain attempts to raise the price 
and excite competition, said, " Not sold to-day, Sally ; you 
may get down." 

Tuesday, May 7. — The newspapers contain the text of 
the declaration of the state of war on the part of President 
Davis, and of the issue of letters of marque and reprisal, 
4Sz;c. But it may be asked, who will take these letters of • 
marque ? Where is the Government of Montgomery to find 
ships ? The answer is to be found in the fact that already 
numerous applications have been received from the ship- 
owners of New England, from the whalers of New Bedford, 
and from others in the Northern States, for these very letters 
of marque, accompanied by the highest securities and guar- 
anties ! This statement I make on the very highest author- 
ity. I leave it to you to deal with the facts. 

To-day I proceeded to the Montgomery Downing Street 
and Whitehall to present myself to the members of the Cab- 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 71 

inet, and to be introduced to the President of the Confeder- 
ate States of America. There is no sentry at the doors, and 
access is free to all, but there are notices on the doors warn- 
ing visitors that they can only be received during certain 
hours. The President was engaged with some gentlemen 
when I was presented to him, but he received me with much 
kindliness of manner, and when they had left entered into 
conversation with me for some time on general matters. Mr. 
Davis is a man of slight, sinewy figure, rather over the mid- 
dle height, and of- erect,*soldier-like bearing. He is about 
fifty-five years of age ; his features are regular and well- 
defined, but the face is thin and marked on cheek and brow 
with many wrinkles, and is rather careworn and haggard. 
One eye is apparently blind, the other is dark, piercing, and 
intelligent. He was dressed very plainly in a light gray 
summer suit. In the course of conversation he gave an 
order for the Secretary of War to furnish me with a letter 
as a kind of passport in case of my falling in with the sol- 
diers of any military posts who might be indisposed to let 
me pass freely, merely observing that I had been enough 
within the lines of camps to know what was my duty on 
such occasions, I subsequently was presented to Mr. 
Walker, the Secretary of War, who promised to furnish 
me with the needful documents before I left Montgomery. 
In his room were General Beauregard and several officers, en- 
gaged over plans and maps, apparently in a little council of 
war, which was, perhaps, not without reference to the intel- 
ligence that the United States troops were marching on 
Norfolk Navy Yard, and had actually occupied Alexandria. 
On leaving the Secretary I proceeded to the room of the 
Attorney General, Mr. Benjamin, a very intelligent and 
able man, whom I found busied in preparations connected 
with the issue of letters of marque. Everything in the 
offices looked like earnest work and business. 

On my way back from the State Department I saw a very 
fine company of infantry and three field pieces, with about 
one hundred and twenty artillerymen, on their march to 
the railway station for Virginia. The men were all well 
equipped, but there were no ammunition wagons for the guns, 
and the transport consisted solely of a few country carts 
drawn by poor horses, out of condition. There is no lack 
of muscle and will among the men. The troops which I 
see here are quite fit to march and fight as far as their per- 
sonnel is concerned, and there is no people in the world so 



m 



Iff! 72 THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA. 



crazy with military madness. The very children in the 

streets ape the air of soldiers, carry little flags, and wear 

i|i J,., cockades as they strut in the highways; and mothers and 

jlllj fathers feed the fever by dressing them up as Zouaves or 

':• ■ ■ Chasseurs. 

Mrs. Davis had a small levee to-day in right of her posi- 

• j tion as wife of the President. Several ladies there proba- 

i i| bly looked forward to the time when their States might 

'lib: secede from the new Confederation, and aflbrd them the 

] |i;J|iv pleasure of holding a reception. Why not Presidents of 

II I ill; the State of Georgia, or Alabama ? Why not King of South 

'||;|| i Carolina, or Emperor of Florida? Soldiers of fortune, make 

j|n"j|| your game ! Gentlemen politicians, the ball is rolling. There 

f|if jljil is, to be sure, a storm gathering at the North, but it cannot 

^l||N;! i hurt you, and already there are condottieri from all parts of 

-\ j|| I' the world flocking to your aid, who will eat your Southern 

J:||l,i!|' beeves the last of all. 

I jjl I One \yord more as to a fleet. The English owners of 

' hj! f: several large steamers are already in correspondence with 

^ ;j I !i • the Government here for the purchase of their vessels. The 

f^ |:| intelligence which had rea!ched the Government that their 

' Commissioners have gone on to Paris is regarded as unfavor- 

able to their claims, and as a proof that as yet England is 
not disposed to recognize them. It is amusing to hear the 
tone used on both sides toward Great Britain. Both are 
) ijf; . most anxious for her countenance and support, although the 

j l|,||?|'; North blusters rather more about its independence than the 

j 1^1 I South, which professes a warm regard for the mother coun- 

If try. "But," says the North, " if Great Britain recognizes 

I |l the South, we shall ceitainly look on it as a declaration of 

iwar." "And," says the South, " if Great Britain does not 
ji recognize our privateers' flag, we-shall regard it as proof of 

f ■' hostility and of alliance with the enemy." The Govern- 

j i ment at Washington seeks to obtain promises from Lord 

I I'j ' I Lyons that our Government will not recognize the Southern 

I I'l ||' : Confederacy, but at the same time refuses any guaranties 

^ V 1 i| • in reference to the rights of neutrals. The blockade of the 

,] ji ; Southern ports would not occasion us any great mconveni- 

^ '!!;J| ence at present, because the cotton-loading season is over ; 

y t,,||l l! but if it be enforced in October, there is a prospect of very 

J g^\2 serious and embarrassing questions arising in reference to 

the rights of neutrals, treaty obligations with the United 
States Government, the trade and commerce of England, and 
if the law of blockade in reference to the distinctions to be 

j drawn between measures of war and means of annoyance. 



it 



ill 

'rft 



1*1; 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 73 

As I write the guns in front of the State Department are 
firing a salute, and each report marks a State of the Confed- 
eracy. They are now ten, as Arkansas and Tennessee are 
now out of the Union. 



LETTER IX. 

FROM MONTGOMERY TO MOBILE. 

Mobile, Alabama, May 11. 

The wayfarer who confides in the maps of a strange coun- 
try, or who should rely upon even the guide-books of the 
United States, which still lack a Murray or a Bradshaw, 
may be at times embarrassed by insuperable hills and un- 
navigable rivers. When however, I saw the three tower- 
ing stories of bhc high-p.essure steamer Southern Republic, 
on board of which we tumbled down the steep bank of the 
Alabama river at Montgomery, any such misgivings vanish 
from my mind. So colossal an ark could have ascended no 
mythical stream, and the existence and capabilities of the 
•Alabama were demonstrated by its presence. 

Punctuality is reputed a rare virtue in the river steamers of 
the West and South, which seldom leave their wharves until 
they have bagged a fair complement of passengers, although 
steaming up and ringing gongs and bells every afternoon 
for a week or more before their departure, as if travellers 
were to be swarmed like bees. Whether stimulated by the 
infectious activity of these " war times," or convinced that 
the " politeness of kings " is the best steamboat policy, the 
grandson of Erin who owns and commands the Southern 
Republic casts ofi" his fastenings but half an hour after his 
promised start, and the short puff of the engine is enlivened 
by the wild strains of a steam-organ called a " calliope," 
which gladdens us with the assurance that we are in the in- 
comparable " land of Dixie." 

Reserving for a cooler hour the attractions of the lower 
floor — a Hades consecrated to machinery, freight, and ne- 
groes — we betake ourselves to the second landing, where 
we find a long dining-hall surrounded by two tiers of state 
rooms, the upper one accessible by a stairway leading to a 
gallery, which divides the " saloon " between floor and roof. 
7 



74 THE CIVIL WAE I]Sr AMERICA. 

We are shown to our quarters, whicli leave miicli to be de- 
sired and nothing to spare, and rush from their suffocating 
atmosphere to the outer balcony, where a faint breeze stirs 
the air. There is a roofed balcony above us that coitcs- 
ponds to the second tier of state rooms, from which a party 
of excited Secessionists are discharging revolvers at the dip- 
pers on the surface and the cranes on the banks of the river. 

After we have dropped down five or six miles from Mont- 
gomery, the steam whistle announces our approach to a land- 
ing, and, as there is no wharf in view, we watch curiously 
the process by which our top-heavy craft, under the sway of 
a four-knot current, is to swing round in her invisible moor- 
ings. As we draw nigh to a wagon-worn indenture in the 
bank, the " scream " softens into the dulcet pipes of the 
" calliope," and the steamer doubles upon her track, like an 
elephant tur2:ing'a:t'c>ay^er two engines being as independ- 
ent of ^^'ch other as Secedihg-States, and, slowly stemming 
the stream, lays her nose upon the bank, and holds it there, 
with the judicious aid of her paddr'^s- -liniil a long plank is 
run ashore from her bow, over which three passengers, with 
valises, make way for a planter and his family, who come on 
board. The gang-plank is hauled in, the steamer turns her 
head down stream with the expertness of a whale in a canal, 
and we resume our voyage. We renew these stoppages at 
various times before dark, landing here a barrel and there a 
box, and occasionally picking up a passenger. 

After supper, which is served on a series of parallel tables 
running athwart the saloon, we return to enjoy from the 
balcony the cool obscurity of the evening 'in this climate, 
where light means heat. As we cleave the glass surface of 
the black water, the timber- clad banks seem to hem us in 
more closely and to shut up in the vista before us, and while 
we glide down with a rapidity which would need but the 
roar of rapids to prefigure a cataract beyond, we yield to the 
caprice of fancy, instituting comparisons between the dark 
perspective ahead and the mystery of the future. 

Again a scream, and a ruddy light flashes from our prow 
and deepens the shades around us. This proceeds from 
the burning of " light wood " — a highly resinous pine — in 
a wire basket hung on gimbals and held like a landing-net 
below the bow of the steamer, so as to guide without blind- 
ing the pilot, who is ensconced like a Hansom cabman 
upon its roof. The torch-bearer raises his cresset as we 
steam up to the bank, and plants it in a socket, when a haw- 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



75 



ser is seized round a tree, and the crew turned ashore to 
" wood up." There is a steep high bank above us, and 
while dusky forms are flitting to and fro with food for our 
furnaces, we surve}^ a long stairway ascending the bank at a 
sharp angle in a cut, which is lost in the sheds that crown 
the eminence over head. This stair is flanked on either 
side by the bars of an iron tramway, up which freight is 
hauled when landed, and parallel to it is a wooden slide, 
down which bales of cotton and sacks of corn are shot upon 
the steamer. One or two passengers slowly ascend, and a 
voice in the air notifies us that a team is at hand with a 
load of ladies, who shortly after are seen picking their way 
down the flight of steps. The cresset is constantly replen- 
ished with fresh light wood, and the shadows cast by its 
flickering flame make us regret that we have not with us a 
Turner to preserve this scene, which would have been a 
study for Rembrandt or Salvator Rosa. 

At midnight we halt for a couple of hours at Selma, a 
" rising town," which has taken a start of late, owing to 
the arrival of a branch railway, that connects it with Ten- 
nessee and the Mississippi River. Here a huge emharca- 
dere, several stories high, seems fastened to the side of the 
bank, and affords us an opportunity of stepping out from 
either story of the Southern Republic upon a correspond- 
ing landing. Upon one of these floors there are hackmen 
and hotel runners, competing for those who land, and indi- 
cating the proximity of a town, if not a city. Our captain 
had resolved upon making but a short stay, in lieu of tying 
up until morning — his usual practice — when an acquaint- 
ance comes on board and begs him to wait an hour for a 
couple of ladies and some children, whom he will hunt up a 
mile or so out of town. Times are hard, and the captain 
very cheerfully consents, not insensible to the flattering 
insinuation : " You know our folks never go with any one 
but you, if they can help it." 

The next day and evening are a repetition of the fore- 
going scenes, with more plantations in view and a general 
air of tillage and prosperity. We are struck by the unifor- 
mity of the soil, which everywhere seems of inexhaustible 
fertility, and by the unvarying breadth of the stream, which, 
but for its constantly recurring sinuosities, might pass for a 
broad ship canal. We also remark that the bluffs rarely 
sink into bottoms susceptible of overflow, and admire the 
verdure of the primitive forest, a tangle of magnolias in full 



76 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

flower, of laurel, and of various oaks peculiar to this 
region, and which, though never rising to the dignity of 
that noble tree in higher latitudes, are many of them ex- 
tremely graceful. All this sylva of moderate stature is 
intertwined with creepers, and at intervals we see the Span- 
ish moss, indicating the malarious exhalations of the soil 
beneath. The Indian corn, upon which the Southerners 
rely, principally for food, has attained a height of two feet, 
and we were told that, in consequence of the war, it is sown 
in greater breadth than usual. The cotton plant has but 
just peeped above the earth, and, alluding to its tenderness, 
those around us express anxieties about that crop, which, it 
seems, are never allayed until it has been picked, bagged 
and pressed, shipped and sold. 

As I am not engaged upon an itinerary, let these 
sketches suffice to convey an idea of the four hundred and 
seventeen miles of winding river which connect Montgom- 
ery with Mobile, to which place the Southern Republic 
conveyed us in thirty-four hours, stoppings included. 

One of the Egyptian pyramids owes its origin to the 
strange caprice of a princess, and the Southern Republic is 
said to have been built with the proceeds of an accidental 
" haul " of Gold Coast natives, who fell into the net of her 
enterprising proprietor. This worthy, born of Irish parents 
in Milk street, is too striking a type of what the late Mr. 
Webster was wont to call a " Northern man with South- 
ern principles," not to deserve something more than a 
passing notice. 

For out-and-out Southern notions there is nothing in 

, |l . Dixie's Land like the successful emigrant from the North 

If '''■ ' and East. Captain Meagher had at his fingers' ends all the 

politico-economical facts and figures of the Southern side 

of the question, and rested his reasoning solely upon the 

more sordid and material calculations of the Secessionists. 

, , It was a question of tariffs. The North had, no doubt, 

l!'l||' ' provided the protection of a navy, the facilities of mails, 

' the construction of forts, Custom Houses, and Post Offices, 

in the South, and placed countless well-paid offices at the 

disposal of gentlemen fond of elegant leisure ; but for all 

these -the South had been paying more than their value, and 

I , when Abolitionists were allowed to elect a Sectional Presi- 

i'"«|!- dent, and the system of forced lalDor, which is the basis of 

Southern prosperity, was threatened, the South were too 
happy to take a "snap judgment," as in a pie poudre 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 77 

Court, and declare the Federal compact forfeited and annull- 
ed forever. 

During the long second day of our voyage, we examined 
the faces of the proletarians, whose color and constitutions 
so well adapted them for the Cyclopian realms of the main 
deck. Among them we detect several physiognomies which 
strike us as resembling seedlings from the Gold Coast rather 
than the second or third fruits of ancient transplantation. 
A fellow traveller gratifies at the same time our curiosity 
and our penetration. There are several native Africans, or, 
as they are called in Cuba, bozales, on board. They are the 
property of the argumentative captain, and were acquired by 
a coup de main, at which I have already hinted in this let- 
ter. It seems that a club of planters in this State and one 
or two others resolved, little more than a year ago, to im- 
port a cargo of Africans. They were influenced partly by 
cupidity and partly by fancy to set the United States laws 
at defiance, and to evince their contempt for New England 
philanthropy. The job was accepted by an Eastern house, 
which engaged to deliver the cargo at a certain point on the 
coast within certain limits of time. 

Whether the shipment arrived earlier than anticipated, 
or whether Captain Meagher was originally designed as the 
person to whom the bold and delicate manoeuvre of landing 
them should be intrusted, it is certain that on a certain Sun- 
day in last July he took a little coasting trip in his steamer 
Czar, and appeared at Mobile on the following morning in 
season to mkke his regular voyage up river. It is no less 
certain that he ran the dusky strangers in at night by an 
unfrequented^pass, and landed them among the cane-brakes 
of his own plantation with sufficient celerity to be back at 
the moorings of the Czar without his absence having been 
noticed. The vessel from which the bozales were delivered 
was scuttled and sunk, and her master and crew found their 
way North by rail. 

But the parties in interest soon claimed to divide the 
spoils, when, to their infinite disgust, the enterprising Cap- 
tain very coolly professed to ignore the whole business, and 
defied them to seek to recover by suit at law property the 
importation of which was regarded and would be punished 
as felony, if not as piracy, by the judicial tribunals. A 
case was made and issue joined, when the Captain proved a 
circumstantial alibi, and, having cast the claimants, doled 
them out a few bonzes, perhaps to escape assassination, as 
7# 



78 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

shells, while he kept the oyster in the shape of the pick 
of the importation, which he still holds, reconciling his 
conscience to the transaction by interpreting it as sal- 
vage. 

All this is told us by our interlocutor, who was one of 
the losers by the affair, and who stigmatized the con- 
duct of its hero as having been treacherous. The latter, 
after repeated jocular inquiries, suffers his vanity to sub- 
due his reticence, and* finishes by " acknowledging the 
corn." 

In the forenoon of the second day we meet two steamers 
ascending the river, with heavy cargoes, and are told that 
they are the Keyes and the Lewis, recently warned off, and 
not seized by the blockading squadron off Pensacola. They 
are deep with provisions for the forces of the Confederate 
States Army before Pickens, which must now be dispatched 
from Montgomery by rail. 

In Mobile, for the first time since leaving Washington, 
" we realize " the entire stagnation of business. There are 
but five- vessels in port, chiefly English, which will suffice 
to carry away the debris of the cotton crop. Exchange on 
the North is unsalable, owing to the impossibility of im- 
porting coin through the unsettled country, and bills on 
London are of slow sale at par, which would leave a 
profit of seven per cent, upon the importation of gold from 
your side. 

Mobile, Sunday, May 11. 

The heat of the city rendered an excursion to which I 
was invited, for the purpose of visiting the forts at the en- 
trance of the bay, exceedingly agreeable, and I was glad to 
get out from the smell of warm bricks to the breezy waters 
of the sea. The party comprised many of the leading mer- 
chants and politicians of this city, which is the third in im- 
portance as a port of exportation in the United States of 
America. There was not a man among them who did not 
express, with more or less determination, the resolve never 
to submit to the rule of the accursed North. Let there be 
no mistake whatever as to the unanimity which exists at pres- 
ent in the South to fight for what it calls its independence, 
and to carry on a war to the knife with the Government of 
the United States. I have frequently had occasion to re- 
mark the curious operation of the doctrine of State Rights 
on the minds of the people : but an examination of the in- 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



79 



stitutions of the country as they actually exist leads to the 
inference that, where the tyranny of the majority is at once 
irresponsible and cruel, it is impossible for any man, where 
the doctrine prevails, to resist it with safety or success. It 
is the inevitable result of the action of this majority, as it 
operates m America, first to demoralize and finally to ab- 
sorb the minority ; and even those who have maintained 
what are called " Union doctrines," and who are opposed 
to secession or revolution, have bowed their heads before 
the majesty of the mass, and have hastened to signify their 
acquiescence in the decisions which they have hitherto op- 
posed. The minority, cowardly in consequence of the 
arbitrary and vindictive character of the overwhelming 
power against which it has struggled, and disheartened by 
defeat, of which the penalties are tremendous in such con- 
flicts as these, hastens to lick the feet of the conqueror, and 
rushes with frantic cheers after the chariot in the triumph 
which celebrates its own humiliation. If there be a mino- 
rity at all on this great question of Secession in the South- 
ern States, it hides in holes and corners, inaccessible to the 
light of day, and sits there in darkness and sorrow, silent 
and fearful, if not dumb and hopeless. There were officers 
who had served with distinction under the flag of the United 
States, now anxious to declare that it was not their flag, 
and that they had no affection for it, although they were 
ready to admit they would have continued to serve under it 
if the States had not gone out. A man's State, in fact, 
under the operation of these majority doctrines to which I 
have adverted, holds hostages for his fidelity to the majori- 
ty, not only in such land or fortune as he may possess within 
her bounds, but in his family, his relatives, and kin, and if 
the State revolts, the officer who remains faithful to the flag 
of the United States is considered by the authorities of the 
revolting State a traitor, and, what is worse, he is treated 
in the persons of those he leave behind him as the worst 
kind of political renegade. General Scott, but a few months 
ago the most honored of men in a Republic which sets such 
store on military success, is now reviled and abused because, 
being a Virginian by birth, he did not immediately violate 
his oath, abandon his post, and turn to fight against the flag 
which he has illustrated by repeated successes, during a 
career of half a century, the moment his State passes an 
ordinance of Secession. 

An intelligent and accomplished officer, who accompanied 



80 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

me to-day around the forts under his command, told me that 
he had all along resisted Secession, but that when his State 
went out he felt it was necessary to resign his commission 
in the United States army, and to take service with the 
Confederates. Among the most determined opponents of 
the North, and the most vehement friends of what are called 
here " domestic institutions," are the British residents, 
English, Irish, and Scotch, who have settled here for trad- 
ing purposes, and who are frequently slave-holders. These 
men have no State rights to uphold, but they are convinced 
of the excellence of things as they are, or find it their 
interest to be so. 

The waters of two rivers fall into the head of the Bay of 
Mobile, which is, in fact, a narrow sea creek between low, 
sandy banks, covered with pine and forest trees, broken 
here and there into islands, and extending some thirty miles 
inland, with a breadth varying from three to seven miles. 
No attempt has been made apparently to improve the waters 
or to provide docks or wharfage for the numerous cotton 
«hips which lie out at the mouth of the bay, more than 
twenty-five miles from Mobile. All the cotton has to be 
sent down to them in lighters, and the number of men thus 
employed in the cotton season in loading the barges, navi- 
gating and transferring the cargoes to the ships, is very con- 
siderable, and their rate of wages is high. - 

The horror entertained by a merchant captain of the shore 
is well known, and skippers are delighted at an anchorage 
so far from land, which at the same time detains the crews 
in the ships and prevents absenteeism and "running." At 
present there are but seven ships at the anchorage, nearly 
all British, and one of the latter appears in the distance hard 
and fast ashore, though whether she got there in consequence 
of the light not being burning or from neglect, it is impos- 
sible to say. Fort Gaines, on the right bank of the channel, 
near the entrance, is an unfinished shell of a fort, which was 
commenced by the United States engineers some time ago, 
and which it would not be easy to finish without a large 
outlay of money and labor. It is not well placed to resist 
either a land attack or an assault by boats. A high sand- 
bank in front of one of the faces screens the fire, and a 
wood on another side, if occupied by riflemen, would render 
it difiicult to work the barbette guns. It is not likely, 
however, that the fort will be attacked. The channel it 
commands is only fit for light vessels. From this fort to the 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 81 

other side of the channel, where Fort Morgan stands, the 
distance is over three miles, and the deep water channel is 
close to the latter fort. The position at Gaines is held by a 
strong body of Alabama troops — stout, sturdy men, who 
have volunteered from farm, field, or desk. They are armed 
with ordinary muskets of the old pattern, and their uniform 
is by no means uniform ; but the men look fit for service. 
The fort would take a garrison of five hundred men if fully 
mounted, but the parapets are mere partition walls of brick- 
work crenelled ; the bomb-proofs are unfinished, and but for 
a few guns mounted on the sand-hills, the place is a defence- 
less shell-trap. There are no guns in the casemates, and 
there is no position ready to bear the weight of a gun in 
barbette. The guns which are on the beach are protected 
by sand-bags traversed, and are more formidable than the 
whole fortress. The steamer proceeded across the channel 
to Fort Morgan, which is a work of considerable importance, 
and is assuming a formidable character under the superin- 
tendence of Colonel Hardee, formerly of the United States 
army. It has a regular trace, bastion, and curtain, with a 
dry 4itch and drawbridge, well-made casemates and bomb- 
proofs, and a tolerable armament of colum.biads, 42 and 32- 
pounders, a few 10-inch mortars, and light guns in the 
external works at the salients. The store of ammunition 
seems ample. Some of the fuses are antiquated, and the 
gun-carriages are old-fashioned. The open parade and the 
unprotected gorges of the casemates would render the work 
extremely unpleasant under a shell fire, and the buildings 
and barracks inside are at present open to the influence of 
heat. The magazines are badly traversed and inadequately 
protected. A very simple and apparently eflective con- 
trivance for dispensing with the use of the sabot in shells 
was shown to me by Colonel Maury, the inventor. It consists 
of two circular grummets of rope, one at the base and the 
other at the upper circumference of the shell, made by a 
simple machinery to fit tightly to the sphere, and bound to- 
gether by thin copper wire. The grummets fit the bore of 
the gun exactly, and act as wads, allowing the base of the 
shell to rest in close contact with the charge, and breaking 
into oakum on leaving the muzzle. Those who know what 
mischief can be done by the fragments of the sabot when 
fired over the heads of troops will appreciate this simple in- 
vention, which is said to give increased range to the horizon- 
tal shell. There must be about sixty guns in this work ; it 



sir? 



82 THE CIVIL WAB IN AMERICA. 

is over-garrisoned, and, indeed, it seems to be the difficulty 
here to know what to do with the home volunteers. Eope 
mantlets are used on the breeches of some of the barbette 
guns. At night the harbor is in perfect darkness. Not- 
withstanding the defences I have indicated, it would be 
quite possible to take Fort Morgan Avith a moderate force 
well supplied with the means of vertical fire. 

" Are there any mosquitoes here ? " inquired I of the 
waiter, on the day of my arrival. " Well, there's a few, I 
guess ; but I wish there were ten times as many." " In the 
name of goodness why do you say so? " asked I, with some 
surprise and indignation. " Because we'd get rid of the 

Black Republicans out of Fort Pickens all the sooner," 

replied he. There is a strange unilateral tendency in the 
minds of men in judging of the operation of causes and 
results in such a contest as that which now prevails between 
the North and the South. The waiter reasoned and spoke 
like many of his betters. The mosquitoes, for whose aid he 
was so anxious, were regarded by him as true Southerners, 
who would only torture his enemies. The idea of these 
persecuting little fiends being so unpatriotic as to vex the 
Confederates in their sandy camp never entered into his 
mind for a moment. In the same way a gentleman of intel- 
ligence, who was speaking to me of the terrible sufferings 
which would be inflicted on the troops at Tortugas and at 
Pickens by fever, dysentery, and summer heats, looked 
quite surprised when I asked him "whether these agencies 
would not prove equally terrible to the troops of the Con- 
federates r " 



LETTER X. 

PORT PICKEISTS AND PENSACOLA A VISIT TO BOTH CAMPS. 

Mobile, May 16, 1861. 

Our little schooner lay quietly at the wharf all night, 
but no one was allowed to come on board without a pass, 
for these wild-looking sentries are excellent men of business, 
and look after the practical part of soldiering with all the 
keenness which their direct personal interest imparts to 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 83 

their notions of duty. The enemy is to them the incarna- 
tion of all evil, and they hunt his spies and servants very 
much as a terrier chases a rat — with intense traditional and 
race animosity. The silence of the night is not broken by 
many challenges, or the " All's well " of patrols ; but there 
is warlike significance enough in the sound of the shot 
which the working parties are rolling over the wooden jetty, 
with a dull, ponderous thumping on board the flats that are 
to carry them off for the food and nourriture of the batteries. 
With the early morning, however, came the moral signs of 
martial existence. I started up from among my cockroaches, 
knocked my head against the fine pine beams over my ham- 
mock, and then, considerably obfuscated by the result, pro- 
ceeded to investigate all the grounds that presented them- 
selves to me as worthy of consideration in reference to the 
theory which had suddenly forced itself upon my mind that 
I was in the Crimea. For close at hand, through the sleepy 
organs of the only sense which was fully awake, came the 
well-known reveillee of the Zouaves, and then French 
clangors, rolls, ruffles, and calls ran along the line, and the 
Volunteers got up, or did not, as seemed best to them. An 
ebony and aged Ganymede, however, appeared with coffee, 
and told me, " the Cap'n wants ask weder you take some bit- 
ters. Sir ; " and, indeed, " the Captain" did compound some 
amazing preparation for the Judges and Colonels present on 
deck and below, that met the approval of them all, and was 
recommending it for its fortifying qualities in making a 
Redan and Malakhoff of the stomach. Breakfast came in 
due time ; not much Persic apparatus to excite the hate of 
the simple-minded, but a great deal of substantial matter, 
in the shape of fried onions, ham, eggs, biscuit, with accom- 
paniments of iced water, Bordeaux, and coffee. Our guests 
were two — a broad, farmer-like gentleman, weighing some 
sixteen stone, dressed in a green frieze tunic, with gold lace 
and red and scarlet worsted facings, and a felt wide-awake, 
who, as he wiped his manly brow, informed me he was a 
" rifleman." We have some Volunteers quite as corpulent, 
and not more patriotic, for our farmer was a man of many 
bales, and, in becoming an officer in his company of braves, 
had given an unmistakable proof of devotion to his distant 
home and property. The other, a quiet, modest, intelligent- 
looking young man, was an officer in a different battalion, 
and talked with sense about a matter with which sense has 
seldom anything to do — I mean uniform. He remarked 



84 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

that in a serious action and close fighting, or in night work, 
it would be very difficult to prevent serious mistakes, and 
even disasters, owing to the officers of the Confederate 
States' troops wearing the same distinguishing marks of 
rank and similar uniforms, whenever they can get them, to 
those used in the regular service of the United States, and 
that much inconvenience will inevitably result from the 
great variety and wonderful diversity of the dresses of the 
immense number of companies forming the different regi- 
ments of Volunteers. 

The only troops near us which were attired with a regard 
to military exactness, were the regiment of Zouaves from 
New Orleans. Most of these are Frenchmen or Creoles, 
some have belonged to the battalions which the Crimea first 
made famous, and were present before Sevastopol and in 
Italy, and the rest are Germans and Irish. Our friends 
went ofi" to see them drill, but, as a believer in the enchant- 
ing power of distance, I preferred to look on at such of the 
manoeuvres as could be seen from the deck. These Zouaves 
look exceedingly like the real article. They are, perhaps, a 
jl % : trifle leaner and taller, and are not so well developed at the 

'' back of the head, the heels, and the ankles, as their proto- 

types. They are dressed in the same way, except that I 
saw no turban on the fez cap. The jacket, the cummer- 
bund, the baggy red breeches, and the gaiters, are all copies 
li of the original. They are all armed with rifle-musket and 

|'|, i' sword-bayonet, and their pay is at the usual rate of $11, or 

something like £2 6s. a month, with rations and allowances. 
The officers do their best to be the true " chacal." , I was 
,' , more interested, I confess, in watching the motions of vast 

III' shoals of mullet and other fish, which flew here and there, 

like flocks of plover, before the red fish and other enemies, 
and darted under our boat, than in examining Zouave drill. 
Once, as a large fish came gamboling along the surface 
close at hand, a great gleam of white shot up in the waves 
beneath, and a boiling whirl marked with a crimson pool, 
which gradually melted ofi" in the tide, showed where a ' 
monster shark had taken down a part of his breakfast. 
" That's a ground-sheark," quoth the skipper. " There's 
quite a many of them about here." Porpoises passed by 
in a great hurry for Pensacola, and now and then a turtle 
showed his dear little head above the enviable fluid which 
he honored with his presence. Far away in the long stretch 
of water toward Pensacola are six British merchantmen in a 






THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 85 

state of blockade ; that is, they have only fifteen days to 
clear out, according to the reading of the law adopted by 
the United States officers. 

The Navy Yard looks clean and neat in the early morn- 
ing, and away on the other side of the channel Fort Pickens 
— teterrima causa — raises its dark front from the white 
sand and green sward of the glacis, on which a number of 
black objects invite inspection through a telescope, a^d 
obligingly resolve themselves into horses turned out to 
graze on the slope. Fort M'Rae, at the other side of the 
channel, as if to irritate its neighbor, flings out a flag to 
the breeze, which is the counterpart of the " Stars and 
Stripes " that wave from the rival flagstaff", and is at this 
distance identical to the eye until the glass detects the ^li- 
tary star in its folds instead of the whole galaxy. On the 
dazzling snowy margin of sand that separates the trees and 
brushwood from the sea, close at hand, the outline of the 
batteries which stud the shore for miles is visible. Let us 
go and make a close inspection. Mr. Ellis, a lieutenant in 
the Louisiana regiment, who is aide-de-camp to Brigadier- 
General Bragg, has just arrived with a message from his 
chief to escort me round all the works, and wherever else I 
like to go, without any reservation whatever. He is a 
handsome, well-built, slight young fellow, very composed 
and staid in manner, but full of sentiment for the South. 
Returned from a tour in Europe, he is all admiration for 
English scenery, life, and habits. " After all, nature has 
been more bountiful to you than to us." He is dressed in 
a tight undress cavalry jacket and trowsers of blue flannel, 
with plain gold lace pipings and buttons, but on his heels 
are heavy brass spurs, worthy of the heaviest of field offi- 
cers. Our horses are standing in the shade of a large tree 
near the wharf, and mine is equipped with a saddle of pon- 
derous brass-work, on raised pummel and cantle, and hous- 
ings, and emblazoned cloth, and mighty stirrups of brass fit 
for the stoutest marshal that ever led an army of France to 
victory ; General Braxton Bragg is longer in the leg than 
Marshal Pelissier or Canrobert, or the writer, and as we 
jogged along over the deep, hot sand, my kind companion, 
in spite of my assurances that the leathers were quite com- 
fortable, made himself and me somewhat uneasy on the 
score -of their adjustment, and, as there was no imple- 
ment at hand to make a hole, we turned into the General's 
court yard to effect the necessary alterations. The cry 
8 



86 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



of " Orderly " brought a smart, soldierly young man to 
the front, who speedily took me three holes up, and as I 
was going away he touched his cap and said, " I beg your 
pardon, Sir, but I often saAV you in the Crimea." His 
story as he told it was brief. He had been in the 11 th 
Hussars, and^on the day of the 25th of October he was fol- 
lowing, as he said, close after Lord Cardigan and Captain 
Nolan, when his horse was killed under him. As he tried 
to make his escape, the Cossacks took him prisoner, and for 
eleven months he was in captivity, but was exchanged at 
Odessa, " Why did you leave the service ? " " Well, Sir, 
I was one of the two sergeants that was permitted to leave 
in each regiment on the close of the war, and I came away." 
" But here you are soldiering again ? " " Yes, Sir ; I came 
over here to better myself, as I thought, and I had to enter 
one of their cavalry regiments, but now I am an orderly." 
He told me further, that his name was Montague, and that 
he " thought his father lived near Windsor, tWenty-one 
miles from London ; " and I was pleased to find his supe- 
rior officers spoke of him in very high terms, although I 
could have wished those who spoke so were in our own 
service. 

I do not think that any number of words can give a good 
idea of a long line of detached batteries. I went through 
them all, and I certainly found stronger reasons than ever 
for distrusting the extraordinary statements which appear 
in the American journals in reference to military matters, 
particularly on their own side of the question. Instead of 
hundreds of guns, there are only ten. They are mostly of 
small calibre, and the gun-carriages are old and unsound, or 
new and rudely made. There are only five "heavy " guns 
in all the works, but the mortar batteries, three in number, 
of which one is unfinished, will prove very damaging, al- 
though they will only contain nine or ten mortars. The 
batteries are all sand-bag and earthworks, with the exception 
of Fort Barrancas. They are made after all sorts of ways, 
and are of very diiFerent degrees of efficiency. In some 
the magazines will come to speedy destruction ; in others 
they are well made. Some are of the finest white sand, 
and will blind the gunners, or be blown away with shells ; 
others are cramped, and hardly traversed ; others, again, 
are very spacious, and well constructed. The embrasures 
are usually made of sand-bags, covered with raw hide, to 
save the cotton bags from the effect of the fire of their own 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA, 87 

guns. I was amused to observe that most of these works 
had galleries in the rear, generally in connection with the 
magazine passages, which the constructors called "rat- 
holes," and which are intended as shelter to the men at the 
guns, in case of shells falling inside the battery. They 
may prove to have a very different result, and are certainly 
not so desirable in a military point of view as good traverses. 
A rush for the "rat-holes" will not be very dignified or 
improving to the morale every time a bomb hurtles over 
them ; and assuredly the damage to the magazines will be 
enormous if the fire from Pickens is accurate and well sus- 
tained. Several of the batteries were not finished, and the 
men who ought to have been working were lying under the 
shade of trees, sleeping or smoking — long-limbed, long- 
bearded fellows in flannel shirts and slouched hats, uniform- 
less in all save bright, well-kept arms, and resolute purpose. 
We went along slowly from one battery to the other. I 
visited nine altogether, not including Fort Barrancas, and 
there are three others, among which is Fort M'Rae. Per- 
haps there may be fifty ^uns of all sorts in position for 
about three miles, along a line exceeding 136 deg. around 
Fort Pickens, the average distance being about 1^ mile. 
The mortar batteries are well placed among brushwood, 
quite out of view to the fort, at distances varying from 2,500 
to 2,800 yards, and the mortars are generally of callibres 
nearly corresponding with our 10-inch pieces. Several of 
the gun batteries are put on the level of the beach ; others 
have more command, and one is particularly well placed, 
close to the White Lighthouse, on a raised plateau, which 
dominates the sandy strip that runs out to Fort M'Rae. 
Of the latter I have already spoken. Fort Barrancas is an 
old fort — I believe of Spanish construction, with a very 
meagre trace — a plain curtain-face toward the sea, pro- 
tected by a dry ditch and an outwork, in which, however, 
there are no guns. There is a drawbridge in the rear of 
the work, which is a simple parallelogram, showing twelve 
guns mounted en harhetie on the sea-face. The walls are 
of brick, and the guns are protected by thick merlons of 
sand-bags. The sole advantage of the fort is in its position ; 
it almost looks down into the casemates of Pickens oppo- 
site, at its weakest point, and it has a fair command of the 
sea entrance, but the guns are weak, and there are only 
three pieces mounted which can do much mischief. While 
I was looking round there was an entertaining dispute going 



W: 



88 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



f i 



on between two men, whom I believe to have been officers, 
as to the work to be done, and I heard the inferior intimate 
pretty broadly his conviction that his chief did not know 
his own business in reference to some orders he was con- 
I:'" veying. 

il ' The amount of ammunition which I saw did not appear 

to me to be at all sufficient for one day's moderate firing, 
and many of the shot were roughly cast and had deep 
I", flanges from the moulds in their sides, very destructive to 

||- the guns as well as to accuracy. In the rear of these batte- 

[jlif^,; ries, among the pine woods and in deep brush, are three 

!|'if ^ ' irregular camps, which, to the best of my belief, could not 

contain more than 2, 700 men. There are probably 3,000 in 
,; and about the batteries, the Navy Yard, and the suburbs, 

',|, ! and there are also, I am informed, 1,500 at Pensacola, but I 

W; ;■ doubt exceedingly that there are as many as 8,000 men, all 

'Ijijli i; told, of effective strength under the command of Gen. Bragg. 

J I ; » It would be a mistake to despise these Irregulars. One of 

fi)!,; the Mississippi regiments out in camp was evidently com- 

,iii'|0 posed of men who liked campaigning, and who looked as 

i;p.; ■ though they would like fighting. They had no particular 

uniforms — the remark will often be made — but they had 
pugnacious physiognomies, and the physical means of car- 
rying their inclinations into effect, and every man of them 
was, I am informed, familiar with the use of arms. Their 
tents are mostly small and bad, on the ridge-pole pattern, 
with side fiys to keep off the sun. In some battalions they 
observe regularity of line, in others they follow individual 
or company caprice. The men use green boughs and bow- 
ers, as our poor fellows did in the old hot days in Bulgaria, 
; and many of them had benches and seats before their doors, 

'ji and the luxury of boarded floors to sleep upon. 

There is an embarrassing custom in America, scarcely 
justifiable in any code of good manners, which in the South 
at least is too common, and which may be still more general 
in the North ; at all events, to a stranger it is productive of 
the annoyance which is experienced by one who is obliged 
,| B!:it to inquire whether the behavior of those among whom he is 

^ 'i' at the time is intentional rudeness or conventional want of 

['•If 'Lil breeding. For instance, my friend and myself, as we are 

/ riding along, see a gentleman standing near his battery or 

|! i his tent — " Good-morrow, Colonel," or " General" (as the 

% [ case may be),- says my friend — " Good-morrow (imagining 

!' I military rank according to the notion possessed by speaker 



IfM' 



( ii| 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 89 

of the importance of the position of a General's A. D. C), 
Ellis." " Colonel, &c., allow me to introduce to you Mr. 
Jones of London." The Colonel advances with effusion, 
holds out his hand, grasps Jones's hand rigidly, and says 
warmly, as if he had just gain*ed a particular object of his 
existence, " Mr. Jone.^, I am yery glad to make your ac- 
quaintance, Sir. Have you been pretty well since you have 
been in this country. Sir? " &;c. But it is most likely that 
the Colonel will just walk away when he pleases, without 
saying a word to or taking the least notice of the aforesaid 
Jones, as to whose acquaintance he had just before expressed 
such friendly feelings, and in whose personal health he had 
taken go deep an interest ; and Jones, till he is accustomed 
to it, feels affronted. The fact is, that the introduction 
means nothing ; you are merely told each other's names, 
and if you like you may improve your acquaintance. The 
hand shaking is a remnant of barbarous times, when men 
with the same colored skin were glad to see each other. 

The country through which we rode was most uninterest- 
ing, thick brushwood and pine trees springing out of deep 
sand, here and there a nullah and some dirty stream — all 
fiat as ditchwater. On our return we halted at the Gen- 
eral's quarters. I had left a note for him, in which 1 in- 
quired whether he would have any objection to my proceed- 
ing to Fort Pickens from his command, in case I obtained 
permission to do so, and when I entered General Bragg's 
room he was engaged in writing not merely a very courte- 
ous and complimentary expression of his acquiescence in 
my visit, but letters of introduction to personal friends in 
Louisiana, in the hope of rendering my sojourn more agree- 
able. He expressed a doubt whether my comrades would 
be permitted to enter the fort, and talked very freely with 
me in reference to what I had seen at the batteries, but I 
thought I perceived an indication of some change of purpose 
with respect to the immediate urgency of the attack on Fort 
Pickens, compared with his expressions last night. At 
length I departed with many thanks to General Bragg for 
his kindness and confidence, and returned to a room full of 
Generals and Colonels, who made a levee Of their visits. 

On my return to the schooner I observed that the small 
houses on the side of the long sandy beach were filled with 
men, many of whom were in groups round the happy pos- 
sessors of a newspaper, and listened with the utmost interest 
to the excited delivery of the oracular sentences. How 
8* 



I"'' 



i 



90 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

much of the agony and bitterness of this conflict — nay, 
how much of its existence — may be due to these same 
newspapers, no man can say, but I have very decided opin- 
ions, or rather a very strong belief, on the subject. There 
were still more people around the various bar-rooms than 
were attracted even by the journalists. Two of our com- 
panions were on board when I got back to the quay. The 
Mobile gentlemen had gone off to Pensacola, and had not 
returned to time, and under any circumstances it v/as not 
probable that they would be permitted to land, as undoubt- 
edly they were no friends to the garrison or to the cause of 
the United States. 

Our skipper opened his eyes and Shook his rough head 
when he was ordered to get under way for Fort Pickens, 
and to anchor off the jetty. Up went the flag of truce to 
the fore once more, but the ever- watchful sentry, diverted 
for the. time from his superintendence of the men who were 
fishing at our pier, forbade our departure till the corporal of 
the guard had given leave, and the corporal of the guard 
would not let the fair Diana cast off her warp till he had 
consulted the sergeant of the guard, and so there was some 
delay occasioned by the necessity for holding an interview 
with that functionary, who finally permitted the captain to 
proceed on his way; and with a fair light breeze the schooner 
fell round into the tideway and fglided off towards the fort. 
We drew up with it rapidly, and soon attracted the notice 
of the look-out men and some officers who came down to the 
Jetty. 

We anchored a cable's length from the jetty. In reply 
to the sentry's hail, the skipper asked for a boat to put off 
for us. " Come ofi" in your own boat." Skiff of Sharon! 
But there was no choice.. With all the pathos of that re- 
markable structure, it could not go down in such a short 
row. And if it did ? Well, " there is not a more terrible 
place for sharks along this coast," the captain had told us 
incidentally en route. Our boat was inclined to impar- 
tiality in its relation with the water, and took quite as much 
inside as it could hold, but we soused into it, and the men 
pulled like Doggett's Badgers, and soon we were out of 
shark depth and alongside the jetty, where were standing to 
receive us Mr. Brown, our friend of yesterday, Captain 
Vogdes, and Captain Berry, commanding a United States 
battery in the fort. The soldiers of the guard were United 
States regular troops of the artillery, wore blue uniforms 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 91 

with brass buttons and remarkably ugly slouched hats, with 
an ornament in the shape of two crossed cannons. Captain 
Vogdes informed me that Col. Moore had sent off a reply to 
my letter to the fleet, stating that he would gladly permit 
me to go over the fort, but that he would not allow any one 
else, under any circumstances, whatever, to visit it. My 
friends were, therefore, constrained to stay outside ; but one 
of them picked up a friend on the beach, and got up an im- 
promptu ride along the island. 

The way from the jetty to the entrance of the fort is in 
the universal deep sand of this part of the world ; the dis- 
tance from the landing place to the gateway is not much 
more than two hundred yards, and the approach to the 
portal is quite unprotected. There is a high ramp and 
glacis on the land side, but the face and part of the curtain 
in which the gate is situate are open, as it was not consid- 
ered likely that it would ever be attacked by Americans. 
The sharp angle of the bastion on this face is so weak that 
men are now engaged in throwing up an extempore glacis 
to cover the base of the wall and the casemates from fire. 
The ditch is very broad, and the scarp and counterscarp are 
riveted with brick-work. The curvette has been cleared 
out, and in doing so, as a proof of the agreeable character of 
the locality, I may observe, upwards of sixty rattlesnakes 
were killed by the workmen. An abattis has been made 
along the edge of this part of the ditch — a rough inclined 
fence of staltes and boughs of trees. " Yes, Sir ; at 3'ne 
time when those terrible fire-eating gentlemen at the other 
side were full of threats, and coming to take the place every 
day, there were only seventy men in this fort, and Lieut. 
Slemmer threw up this abattis to delay his assailants, if it 
were only for a few minutes, and to give his men breathing 
time to use their small arms." 

The casemates here are all blinded, and the hospital is situ- 
ated in the bomb-proofs inside. The gate was closed. At a 
talismanic knock it was opened, and from the external silence 
we passed into a scene full of activity and life, through the 
dark gallery which served at first as a framework to the 
picture. The parade of the fort was full of men, and at a 
coup d'ml it was obvious that great effbrts had been made to 
prepare Fort Pickens for a desperate defence. In the parade 
were several tents of what is called Sibley's pattern, like our 
bell tents, but without the lower side wall, and provided 
with a ventilating top, which can be elevated or depressed at 



92 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

pleasure. The parade ground has been judiciously filled 
with deep holes, like inverted cones, in which shells will be 
comparatively innocuous ; and, warned by Sumter, every- 
thing has been removed which could prove in the least de- 
gree combustible. The officer on duty led me straight across 
to the opposite angle of the fort. As the rear of the case- 
mates and bomb-proofs along this side will be exposed to a 
plunging fire from the opposite side, a very ingenious screen 
has been constructed by placing useless gun platforms and 
parts of carriages at an angle against the wall, and piling them 
up with sand and earth for several feet in thickness. A passage 
is thus left between the base of the wall and that of the 
screen through which a man can walk with ease. 

Turning into this passage we entered a lofty bomb-proof, 
which was the bed-room of the commanding officer, and 
passed through into the casemate which serves as his head- 
quarters. Colonol Harvey Brown received me with every 
expression of politeness and courtesy. He is a tall, spare, 
soldierly-looking man, with a face indicative of great resolu- 
tion and energy, as well as of sagacity and kindness, and his 
attachment to the Union was probably one of the reasons of 
his removal from the command of Fort Hamilton, New 
York, to the charge of this very important fort. He has 
been long in the service, and he belonged to the first class of 
graduates who passed at West Point after its establishment 
;^^ in 1818. After a short and very interesting conversation, he 

5', ; pi-liceeded to show me the works, and we mounted upon the 

r parapet, accompanied by Captain Berry, and went over all 

the defences. Fort Pickens has a regular bastioned trace, 
in outline an oblique and rather narrow parallelogram, with 
the obtuse angles facing the sea at one side and the land at 
the other. The acute angle, at which the bastion toward the 
enemy's batteries is situated, is the weakest part of the 
work ; but it was built for sea defence, as I have already 
observed, and the trace was prolonged to obtain the greatest 



W 



M.\ 



Ijl amount of fire on the sea approaches. The crest of the par- 

IJl apet is covered with very solid and well-made merlons of 

t|!i;j||| heavy sand-bags, but one face and the gorge of the bastion 

^ ' are exposed to an enfilading fire from Fort M'Rae, which 

the Colonel said he intended to guard against if he got time. 
All the guns seemed in good order, the carriages being 
well constructed, but they are mostly of what are considered 
small calibres now-a-days, being 32-pounders, with some 42- 
pounders and 24-pounders. There are, however, four heavy 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 93 

columbiads, which command the enemy's works on several 
points very completely. It struck me that the bastion guns 
were rather crowded. But, even in its present state, the 
.defensive preparations are most creditable to the officers, 
who have had only three weeks to do the immense amount 
of work before us. The brick copings have been removed 
from the parapets, and strong sand-bag traverses have been 
constructed to cover the gunners, in addition to the " rat- 
holes " at the bastions. More heavy guns are expected, 
which, with the aid of a few more mortars, will enable the 
garrison to hold their own against everything but a regular 
siege on the land side, and so long as the fleet covers the 
narrow neck of the island with its guns, it is not possible for 
the Confederates to effect a lodgment. If Fort M'Rae 
were strong and heavily armed, it could inflict great damage 
on Pickens ; but it is neither one nor the other, and the 
United States officers are confident that they will speedily 
render it quite untenable. 

The bouches a feu of the fort may be put down at forty, 
including the available pieces in the casemates, which sweep 
the ditch and the faces of the curtains. The walls are of 
the hardest brick, of nine feet thickness in many places, and 
the crest of the parapets on which the merlons and traverses 
rest are of turf. From the walls there is a splendid view of 
th*e whole position, and I found my companions were per- 
fectly well acquainted with the strength and locus of the 
greater part of the enemy's works. Of course I held my 
peace, but I was amused at their accuracy. " There are the 
quarters of our friend, General Bragg." '* There is one of 
their best batteries just l)eside the lighthouse." The tall 
chimney of the Warrington Navy Yard was smoking away 
lustily. The Colonel called my attention to it. " Do you 
see that, Sir ? They are casting shot there. The sole reason 
for their ' forbearance ' is that Navy Yard. They know full 
well that if they open a gun upon us we will lay that yard 
and all the work in ruins." Captain Vogdes subsequently 
expressed some uneasiness on a point as to which I could 
have relieved his mind very effectually. He had seen some- 
thing which led him to apprehend that the Confederates had 
a strong intrenched camp in the rear of their works. There- 
upon I was enabled to perceive that in Captain Vogdes' mind 
there was a strong intention to land and carry the enemy's 
position. Why, otherwise, did you care about an intrenched 
camp, most excellent engineer ? But now I may tell you 



94 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



381 



that there is no intrenched camp at all, and that your vigi- 
lant eye, Sir, merely detected certain very absurd little fur- 
rows which the Confederates have in some places thrown up 
in the soft sand in front of their camps, which would cover, 
a man up to the knee or stomach, and are quite useless as a 
breastwork. If they thought a landing probable, it is un- 
pardonable in them to neglect such a protection. These 
furrows are quite straight, and even if they are deepened the 
assailants have merely to march round them, as they extend 
only for some forty or fifty yards, and have no flanks. The 
officers of the garrison are aware the enemy have mortar 
batteries, but they think the inside of the fort will not be 
easily hit, and they said nothing to show that they were 
acquainted with the position of the mortars. 

From the parapet we descended by a staircase into the 
casemates. The Confederates are greatly deceived in their 
expectation that the United States troops will be much ex- 
posed to the sun or heat in Pickens. More airy, well- venti- 
lated quarters cannot be imagined, and there is quite light 
enough to enable the men to read in most of them. The 
plague of flies will infest both armies, and fs the curse of 
every camp in summer. As to mosquitoes, the Confederates 
will probably sufl'er, if not more, at least as much as the 
States' troops. The eflect of other tormentors, such as yel- 
low fever and dysentery, will be in all probability felt ftn 
both sides ; but, unless the position of the fort is peculiarly 
unhealthy, the men, who are under no control in respect to 
their libations, will probably sufl'er more than those who aire 
restrained by discipline and restricted to a regular allowance. 
Water can always be had by digging, and is fit to use if 
drunk immediately. Vegetables and fresh provisions are 
not of course so easily had as on shore, but there is a scar- 
city of them in both camps, and the supplies from the store- 
ships are very good and certain. The bread baked by the 
garrison is excellent, as I had an opportunity of ascertaining, 
for I carried off" two loaves from the bakehouse on board our 
schooner. 

Our walk through the casemates was very interesting. 
They were crowded with men, most of whom were reading. 
They were quiet, orderly-looking soldiers — a mixture of 
old and young — scarcely equal in stature to their opponents, 
but more to be depended upon, I should think, in a long 
struggle. Everything seemed well arranged. Those men 
who were in bed had mosquito curtains drawn, and were 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMEHICA. 95 

reading or sleeping at their ease. In the casemates used as 
a hospital there were only some twelve men sick out of the 
whole garrison, and I was much struck by the absence of 
any foul smell, and by the cleanliness and neatness of all the 
arrangements. The Colonel spoke to each of the men kindly, 
and they appeared glad to see him. The dispensary was as 
neat as care and elbow-grease could make it, and next door 
to it, in krange juxtaposition, was the laboratory for the 
manufactory of fusees and deadly implements, in equally 
good order. Everything is ready for immediate service. I 
am inclined to think it will be some time before it is wanted. 
Assuredly, if the enemy attack Fort Pickens, they will meet 
with a resistance which will probably end in the entire de- 
struction of the Navy Yard and of the greater part of their 
works. A week's delay will enable Colonel Brown to make 
good some grave defects ; but delay is of more advantage to 
his enemy than it is to him, and if Fort Pickens were made 
at once point d'appui for a vigorous offensive movement by 
the fleet and by a land force, I have very little doubt in my 
mind that Pensacola must fall, and that General Bragg would 
be obliged to retire. In a few weeks the attitude of aifairs 
may be very different. The railroad is open to General 
Bragg, and he can place himself in a very much stronger 
attitude than he now occupies. 

At last the time came for me to leave. The Colonel and 
Captain Berry came down to the beach with me. Outside 
we found Captain Vogdes kindly keeping my friends in con- 
versation and in liquid supplies in the shade of the bake- 
house shed, and, after a little more pleasant conversation, 
we were afloat once more. Probably no living man was ever 
permitted to visit the camps of two enemies within sight of 
each other before this under similar circumstances, for I was 
neither spy nor herald, and I owe my best thanks to those 
who trusted me on both sides so freely and honorably. A 
gentleman who preceded me did not fare quite so well. He 
landed on the island and went up to the fort, where he repre- 
sented himself to be the correspondent of an American jour- 
nal. But his account of himself was not deemed satisfactory. 
He was sent off to the fleet. Presently there came over a 
flag of truce from General Bragg, with a warrant signed by 
a justice of the peace, for the correspondent, on a charge of 
felony ; but the writ did not run in Fort Pickens. The offi- 
cers regarded the message as a clever ruse to get back a spy, 
and the correspondent is still in durance vile, or in safety, 
as the case may be, on board the squadron. 



96 



THE CITIIi WAB IN AMERICA. 



All sails filled, the Diana stood up toward the Navy 
Yard once more in the glare of the setting sun. The senti- 
nels along the battery and beach glared at us with surprise 
as the schooner, with her flag of truce still flying, ran past 
them. The pier was swept with the glass for the Mobile 
gentlemen ; they were not visible. *' Hollo ! Mr. Captain, 
what's that you're at ? " His mate was waving the Con- 
federate flag from the deck. " It's only a signal. Sir, to 
the gentlemen on shore." " Wave some other flag, then, 
while there's a flag of truce flying, and while we are in 
these waters." After backing and filling for some time, 
the party were descried in the distance. Again, the watery 
skiff" was sent off*, and in a few minutes they were permitted, 
thanks to their passes, to come off". Some confidential per- 
son had informed them the attack was certainly coming off 
in a very short time. They were anxious to stay. They 
had seen friends at Pensacola, and were full of praises of 
" the quaint old Spanish settlement," but mine is, unfortu- 
nately, not an excursion of pleasure, and it was imperative 
that I should not waste time. Everything had been eeen 
that was necessary for my purpose. It was beyond my 
power to state the reasons which led me to think no fight 
would take place, for doing so would have been to betray 
confidence. And so we parted company : they to feast 
their eyes on a bombardment — and if they only are near 
enough to see it, they will heartily regret their curiosity, or 
I am mistaken — and we to return to Mobile. 

It was dark before the Diana was well down off" Fort 
Pickens again, and, as she passed out to sea, between it 
and Fort M'Hae, it was certainly to have been expected 
that one side or other would bring her to. Certainly our 
friend Mr. Brown, in his clipper Oriental, would overhaul 
us outside ; and there lay a friendly bottle in a nest of ice 
waiting for the gallant sailor, who was to take farewell of 
us according to promise. Out we glided into night, and 
into the cold sea breeze, which blew fresh and strong from 
the north. In the distance the black form of the Powhatan 
could be just distinguished ; the rest of the squadron could 
not be made out by either eye or glass, nor was the schooner 
in sight. A lantern was hoisted by my orders, and was 
kept aft some time after the schooner was clear of the forts. 
Still no schooner. The wind was not very favorable for 
running toward the Powhatan, and it was too late to ap- 
proach her with perfect confidence from the enemy's side. 
Beside, it was late ; time pressed. 



THE CITIL WAR IN AMEHICA. 9*7, 

The Oriental was surely lying off somewhere to the west- 
ward, and the word was given to make all sail, and soon 
the Diana was bowling along shore, where the sea melted 
away in a fiery line of foam so close to us that a man could, 
in nautical phrase, " shy a biscuit" on the sand. The wind 
was abeam, and the Diana seemed to breathe it through her 
sails, and flew along at an astonishing rate through the 
phosphorescent waters with a prow of flame and a bubbling 
wake of dancing meteor-like streams flowing from her helm, 
as though it were a furnace whence boiled a stream of 
liquid metal. " No sign of the Oriental on our lee bow ? "" 
" Nothin' at all in sight, Sir." The sharks and huge rays 
flew ofl" from the shore as we passed and darted out sea- 
wards, making their runs in brilliant trails of light. On 
sped the Diana, but no Oriental came in sight. 

I was tired. The sun had been very hot ; the ride 
through the batteries, the visits to quarters, the excursion 
to Pickens had found out my weak places, and my head 
was aching and legs fatigued, and so I thought I would 
turn in for a short time, and I dived into the shades below, 
where my comrades were already sleeping, and kicking off 
my boots, lapsed into a state which rendered me indifl'erent 
to the attentions no doubt lavished upon me by the numer- 
ous little familiars who recreate in the well-peopled timbers. 
■ It never entered into my head, even in my dreams, that 
the Captain would break the blockade if he could — particu- 
larly as his papers had not been indorsed, and the penalties 
would be sharp and sure if he were caught. But the confi- 
dence of coasting captains in the extraordinary capabilities 
of their craft is a madness — a hallucination so strong that 
no danger or risk will prevent their acting upon it whenever 
they can. 

I was assured once by the " captain " of a " Billyboy," 
that he could run to windward of any frigate in her majesty's 
service, and there is not a skipper from Hartlepool to 
Whitstable who does not believe his own " Mary Ann," or 
" Three Grandmothers," is, on certain " pints," able to 
bump her fat bows and scuttle-shaped stern faster through 
the seas than any clipper which ever flew a pendant. I had 
been some two hours and a half asleep when I was awakened 
by a whispering in the little cabin. Charley, the negro 
cook, ague-stricken with terror, was leaning over the bed, 
and in broken French was chattering through his teeth — 
" Monsieu, Monsieu, nous sommes perdus ! The bateman 
9 



98 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

de guerre nous poursuit. II n'a pas encore tire. II va 
tirer bientot ! Oh mon Dieu ! mon Dieu ! " Through the 
hatchway I could see the skipper was at the helm, glancing 
anxiously from the compass to the quivering reef points of 
his .mainsail. "What's all this we hear, captain?" 
*' Well, Sir, there's been somethin' a runnin' after us these 
two hours " (very slowly). "But I don't think he'll keech 
us up no how this time." " But, good heavens, you know, 
it may be the Oriental, with Mr. Brown on board." " Ah 
wall — may bee. But he kep quite close upon me in the 
dark — it gev me quite a stark when I seen him. May bee, 
says I, he's a privateerin' chap, and so I draws in on shore 
close as I cud, — gets mee centerboard in, and, says I, I'll 
see what yer med of, mee boy. He ah't a gaining much on 
us." I looked, and sure enough, about half or three- 
quarters of a mile astern, and somewhat to leeward of us, a 
vessel, with sails and hull all blended into a black lump, 
was standing on in pursuit. I strained my eyes and fur- 
bished up the glasses, but I could make out nothing definite. 
The skipper held grimly on. The shore was so close we 
could have almost leaped into the surf, for the Diana, when 
her center-board is up, does not draw much over four feet. 
" Captain, I think you had better shake your wind, and 
see who he is. It may be Mr. Brown." " Meester Brown 
or no I can't help carrine on now. I'd be on the bank out- 
side in a minit if I didn't hold my course." The captain 
had his own way ; he argued that if it was the Oriental she 
would have fired a blank gun long ago to bring us to ; and 
as to not calling us when the sail was discovered, he took 
up the general line of the cruelty of disturbing people when 
they're asleep. Ah ! captain, you know well it was Mr. 
Brown, as you -. let out when we were safe off Fort Morgan. 
By keeping so close in shore in shoal water the Diana was 
enabled to creep along to windward of the stranger, who 
evidently was deeper than ourselves. See there ! Her 
sails shiver ! so one of the crew says ; she's struck ! But 
she's off again, and is after us. We are just within range, 
and one's eyes become quite blinky, watching for the flash 
from the bow, but, whether privateer or United States 
schooner, she was too magnanimous to fire. A stern chase 
is a long chase. It must now be somewhere about two in 
the morning. Nearer and nearer to shore creeps the Diana. 
" I'll lead him into a pretty mess, whoever he is, if he tries 
to follow me through the Swash," grins the skipper. The 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



99 



Swasla is a very shallow, narrow, and dangerous passage 
into Mobile Bay, between tbe sand-banks on the east of the 
main chdnnel and the shore. Our pursuer holds on, but 
gains nothing. The Diana is now only some nine or ten 
miles from Fort Morgan, guarding the entrance to Mobile. 
Soon an uneasy, dancing motion, welcome her approach to 
the Swash. " Take a cast of the lead, John ! " " Nine 
feet." " Good ! Again ! " " Seven feet." '' Good — 
Charley, bring the lantern." (Oh, Charley, why did that 
lantern go out just as it was wanted, and not only expose 
us to the most remarkable amount of " cussin," imprecation, 
and strange oaths our ears ever heard, but expose our lives 
and your head to more imminent danger ?) But so it**was, 
just at the critical juncture when a turn of the helm port or 
starboard made the difference perhaps between life and 
death, light after light went out, and the captain went danc- 
ing mad, after intervals of deadly calmness, as the mate sang 
out, " Five feet and a half! seven feet — six feet — eight 
feet — five feet — four and a half feet (oh Lord!) — six 
feet," and so on, through a measurement of death by inches, 
not at all agreeable. And where was Mr. Brown all this 
time ? Really we were so much interested in the state of 
the lead-line, and in the very peculiar behavior of the lan- 
terns, which would not burn, that we scarcely cared much 
when we heard from the odd hand and Charley that she had 
put about, after running aground once or twice, they 
thought, as soon as we entered the Swash, and had vanished 
rapidly in the darkness. It was little short of a miracle 
that we got past the elbow, for just at the critical moment, 
in a channel not more than one hundred yards broad, with 
only six feet water, the binnacle light, which had burned 
speedily for a minute, sank with a splutter into black night. 
When the passage was accomplished the captain relieved 
his mind by chasing Charley into a corner, and with a shark 
which he held by the tail, as the first weapon that came to 
hand, inflicting on him condign punishment, and then re- 
turning to the helm. Charley, however, knew his master, 
for he slyly seized the shark and flung his defunct corpse 
overboard before another fit of passion came on, and by the 
morning the skipper was good fiiends with him, after he 
had relieved himself by a series of castigations of the negli- 
gent lamplighter with every variety of Rhadaman thine im- 
plement. 

The Diana had thus distinguished her dirty little person 



100 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA.. 



}|;>ft. 



by breaking a blockade, and giving an excellent friend of 
ours a great deal of trouble (if it was indeed Mr. Brown), 
as well as giving us a very unenviable character for want of 
hospitality and courtesy ; and for both I beg to apologize 
with this account of the transaction. But she had a still 
greater triumph. As she approached Fort Morgan all was 
silence. The morning was just showing a grey streak in 
the east. " Why, they're all asleep at the fort," observed 
the indomitable captain, and, regardless of gun or sentries, 
down went his helm, and away the Diana thumped into 
Mobile Bay, and stole off in the darkness toward the oppo- 
site shore. There was, however, a miserable day before us. 
When the light fairly broke we had got only a few miles 
inside, a stiff northerly wind blew right in our teeth, and 
the whole of the blessed day we spent tacking backward 
and forward between one low shore and another low shore, 
in water the color of pea-soup, so that temper and patience 
were exhausted, and we were reduced to such a state that 
we took intense pleasure in meeting with a drowning alli- 
gator. He was a nice-looking young fellow, about ten feet 
long, and had evidently lost his way, and was going out to 
sea bodily, but it would have been the height of cruelty to 
take him on board our ship, miserable as he was, though 
he passed within two yards of us. There was, to be sure, 
the pleasure of seeing Mobile in every possible view, far 
and near, and east and west, and in a lump and run out, 
but it was not relished any more than our dinner, which 
consisted of a very gamy Bologna sausage pig, who had not 
decided whether he would be pork or bacon, and onions 
fried, in a terrible preparation of Charley, |the cook. At 
five in the evening, however, having been nearly fourteen 
hours beating about twenty-seven miles, we were landed at 
an outlying wharf, and I started off for the Battle House 
and rest. The streets are filled with the usual rub-a-dub- 
bing bands, and parades of companies of the citizens in gro- 
tesque garments and armament, all looking full of fight and 
secession. I write my name in the hotel book at the bar as 
usual. Instantly young Vigilance Committee, who has 
been resting his heels high in the air, with one eye on the 
staircase and the other on the end of his cigar, stalks forth 
and reads my style and title, and I have the satisfaction of 
slapping the door in his face as he saunters after me to my 
room, and looks curiously in to see how a man takes off his 
boots. They are all very anxious in the evening to know 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEKICA. lOl 

what I think about Pickens and Pensacola, and I am pleased 
to tell the citizens I think it will be a very tough affair on 
both sides whenever it comes. I proceed to New Orleans 
on Monday. 



LETTER XI. 

FOKT PICKENS AND PENSACOLA A VISIT TO BOTH 

CAMPS. 

Mobile, May 18, 1861. 

I AVAIL myself of the departure of a gentleman who is 
going to New York by the shortest route he can find, to 
send you the accompanying letters. The mails are stopped ; 
so are the telegraphs ; and it is doubtful whether I can get 
to New Orleans by water. Of what I saw at Fort Pickens 
and Pensacola here is an account, written in a very hurried 
inanner, and under very peculiar circumstances. 

Tuesday, May 14, 1861. 

Two New Orleans gentlemen, who came overland from 
Pensacola yesterday, give such an account of their miseries 
from heat, dust, sand, and want of accommodation, in ihe 
dreary waste through which they passed for more than sev- 
enteen hours, that I sought out some other way of going 
there, and at last heard of a small schooner, called the Diana, 
which would gladly undertake to run round by sea, if per- 
mitted to enter by the blockading squadron. 

She was neither clean nor neat-looking ; her captaih, a 
tall, wild-haired young man, had more the air of a mechanic 
than of a sailor, but he knew his business well, as the result 
of the voyage showed. His crew consisted of three men 
and a negro cook. Three gentlemen of Mobile, who were 
anxious to visit General Bragg's camp, agreed to join me, 
but before I sailed I obtained a promise that they would not 
violate the character of neutrals as long as they v^^ere with 
me, and an assurance that they were not in any way engaged 
in or employed by the Confederate States' forces. " Surely 

you will not have Mr. R — hanged, Sir? " said the Mayor 

of Mobile to me when I told him I could not consent to 
pass off the gentleman in question as a private friend. " No, 

I shall do nothing to get Mr. R hanged. It will be his 

9* 



102 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



I 



'I- Si 



:ii':J 



own act whicli causes it, but I will not allow Mr. R to 

accompany me under false pretences. "^Having concluded 
our bargain with the skipper at a tolerably fair rate, and laid 
in a stock of stores and provisions, the party sailed from 
Mobile at five in the evening of Tuesday, May 14, with the 
flag of the Confederate States flying ; but, as a precautionary 
measure, I borrowed from our acting Consul, Mr. Magee, a 
British ensign, which, with a flag of truce, would win the 
favorable consideration of the United States squadron^ Our 
craft, the somewhat Dutch build of which gave no great 
promise of speed, came, to our surprise and pleasure, up 
with the lights of Fort Morgan at nine o'clock, and we were 
allowed to pass unchallenged through a "swash," as a nar- 
row channel over the bar is called, which, despite the ab- 
sence of beacons and buoys, our skipper shot through under 
the guidance of a sounding-pole, which gave, at various 
plunges, but few inches to spare. 

The shore is as flat as a pancake — a belt of white sand, 
covered with drift logs and timber, and with a pine forest ; 
not a house or human habitation of any sort to be seen for 
forty miles, from Fort Morgan to the entrance of the harbor 
of Pensacola ; cheerless, miserable, full of swamps, the 
haunts of alligators, cranes, snakes, and pelicans ; with la- 
goons, such as the Perdida, swelling into inland seas ; deep 
buried in pine woods, and known only to wild creatures 
and to the old flllibusters, — swarming with mosquitoes. 
As the Diana rushed along within a quarter of a mile of 
this grim shore, great fish flew ofi" from the shallows, and 
once a shining gleam flashed along the waters and winged 
its way alongside the little craft — a monster shark, which 
plowed through the sea pari passu for some hundred yards 
leeward of the craft, and distinctly visible in the wonderful 
phosphorescence around it, and then dashed away with a 
trail of light seaward, on some errand of voracity, with tre- 
mendous force and vigor. The wretched Spaniards who 
came to this ill-named Florida must often have cursed their 
stars. How rejoiced were they when the Government of 
the United States relieved them from their dominion ! Once 
during the night some lights were seen on shore, as if from 
a camp flre. The skipper proposed to load an old iron car- 
ronade and blaze away at them, and one of the party actu- 
ally got out his revolver to fire, but I objected very strongly 
to these valorous proceedings, and, suggesting that they 
might be friends who were there, and that, friends or foes, 



i 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA. 103 

they were sure to return our fire, succeeded in calming the 
martial ardor on board the Diana. The fires were very prob- 
ably made by some of the horsemen lately sent out by General 
Bragg to patrol the coast, but the skipper said that in all his 
life-long experience he had never seen a human creature or 
a light on that shore before. The wind was so favorable 
and the Diana so fast, that she would have run into the 
midst of the United States squadron ofi" Fort Pickens had 
she pursued her course. Therefore, when she was within 
about ten miles of the station she hove to, and lay off* and 
on for about two hours. Before dawn the sails were filled, 
and ofi" she went once more, bowling along merrily, till with 
the first flush of day there came in sight Fort M'Rae, Fort 
Pickens, and the masts of the squadron, just rising above 
the blended horizon of low shore and sea. The former, 
which is on the western shore of the mainland, is in the 
hands of the Confederate troops. The latter is just oppo- 
site to it, on the extremity of the sand-bank called Santa 
Bosa Island, which for forty-five miles runs in a belt par- 
allel to the shore of Florida, at a distance varying from one 
and a quarter to four miles. To make smooth water of it, 
the schooner made several tacks shoreward. In the second 
of these tacks the subtle entrance of Perdida Creek is 
pointed out, which, after several serpentine and reentering 
undulations of channel, one of which is only separated 
from the sea for a mile or more by a thin wall of sand-bank, 
widens to meet the discharge of a tolerably spacious inland 
lake. The Perdida is the dividing line between the States 
of Alabama and Florida. 

The flagstaff of Fort M*Bae soon became visible, and in 
fainter outline beyond it that of Fort Pickens and the hulls 
of the fleet, in which one can make out three war steamers, 
a frigate, and a sloop -of- war, and then the sharp-set canvas 
of a schooner^ the police craft of this beat, bearing down 
upon us. The skipper, with some uneasiness, announces 
the small schooner that is sailing in the wind's eye as the 
•' Oriental," and confesses to have already been challenged 
and warned off by her sentinel master. We promised him 
immunity for the past and safety for the future, and, easing 
off" the main sheet, he lays the Diana on her course for the 
fleet. 

Fort M'Rae, one of the obsolete school of fortresses, 
rounds up our left. Beyond it, on the shore, is Barrancas, 
a square-faced work, half a mile further up the channel, 



104 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

and more immediately facing Fort Pickens. A thick wood 
crowns the low shore which treads away to the eastward, 
but amid the sand the glass can trace the outlines of the 
batteries. Pretty-looking detached houses line the beach ; 
some loftier edifices gather close up to the shelter of a tall 
chimney which is vomiting out clouds of smoke, and a few 
masts and spars checker the white fronts of the large build- 
ings and sheds, which, with a big shears, indicate the posi- 
tion of the Navy Yard of Warrington, commonly called that 
of Pensacola, although the place of that name lies several 
miles higher up the creek. Fort M'Rae seems to have sunk 
at the foundations ; the crowns of many of the casemates 
are cracked, and the water-face is poor-looking. Fort Pick- 
ens, on the contrary, is a solid, substantial-looking work, 
and reminds one something of Fort Paul at Sevastopol, as 
seen from the sea, except that it has only one tier of case- 
mates, and is not so high. 

As the Oriental approaches, the Diana throws her fore- 
sail aback, and the pretty little craft, with a full-sized United 
States ensign flying, and the muzzle of a brass howitzer 
peeping over her forecastle, ranges up luflT, and taking an 
easy sweep lies alongside us. A boat is lowered from her 
and is soon alongside, steered by an officer ; her crew are 
armed to the teeth with pistols and cutlasses. " Ah, I think 
I have seen you before. What schooner is this ? " " The 
Diana, from Mobile." The officer steps on deck, and an- 
nounces himself as Mr. Brown, Master in the United States 
Navy, in charge of the boarding vessel Oriental. The crew 
secure their boat and step up after him. The skipper, look- 
ing very sulky, hands his papers to the officer. " Now, sir, 
make sail, and lie to under the quarter of that steamer, the 
guardship Powhatan." 

Mr. Brown was exceedingly courteous when he heard 
who the party were. The Mobilians, however, looked as 
black as thunder ; nor where they at all better pleased when 
they heard the skipper ask if he did not know there was a 
strict blockade of the port. The Powhattan [is a paddle 
steamer of 2,200 tuns and 10 guns, and is known to our 
service as the flag-ship of Commodore Tatnall, in Chinese 
waters, when that gallant veteran gave us timely and kindly 
proof of the truth of his well-known expression, " Blood is 
thicker than water." Upon her spar-deck there is a stout, 
healthy-looking crew, which seems quite able to attend to 
her armament of ten heavy 10-inch Dahlgren columbiads, 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 105 

and the formidable 1 1 -inclies of the same family on the fore- 
castle. Her commander, Captain Porter, though onlj^ a lieu- 
tenant, commanding, has seen an age of active service, both in 
the navy and in the merchant steam marine service, to which 
he was detailed for six or seven years after the discovery of 
California. The party were ushered into the cabin, and 
Captain Porter received them with perfect courtesy, heard 
bur names and object, and then entered into general con- 
versation, in which the Mobilians, thawed by his sailorly 
frankness, gradually joined, as well as they could. Over 
and over again I must acknowledge the exceeding politeness 
and civility with which your correspondent has been received 
by the authorities on both sides in this unhappy war. 

Though but little beyond the age of forty, Captain Por- 
ter has been long enough in the navy to have imbibed some 
of those prejudices which by the profane are stigmatized as 
fogyisms. Until the day previous he had, he told me, felt 
disposed to condemn rifled cannon of a small calibre as 
" gimcracks," but had been rapidly converted to the " Arm- 
strong faith " by the following experiment : He was making 
target-practice with his heavy gun at a distance of some 
2,600 yards. At anything like a moderate elevation the 
experiment was unsatisfactory ; and, while his gunners were 
essaying to harmonize cause and effect, the charge and the 
elevation, he bethought him of a little rifled brass plaything 
which Captain Dahlgren had sent on board a day or two 
before his departure. To his astonishment the ball, after 
careering until he thought " it would never stop going," 
struck the water 1,000 yards beyond the target, and estab- 
lished a reputation he had never believed possible for a how- 
itzer of 6lb. calibre carrying a 12lb. bolt. He observed that 
the ancient walls of Fort M'Rae would not resist this new 
missile for half an hour. 

If it comes to fighting, you will hear more of the Pow- 
hatan and Captain Porter. He has been repeatedly in the 
harbor and along the enemy's works at night in his boat, 
and knows their position thoroughly ; and he showed me on 
his chart the various spots marked off whence he can sweep, 
their works and do them immense mischief. " The Pow- 
hatan is old, and if she sinks I can't help it." She is all 
ready for action; boarding-nettings triced up, fieldpieces 
and howitzers prepared against night boarding, and the 
whole of her bows padded internally, with dead wood and 
sails, so as to prevent her main deck being raked as she 



106 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



^1 ^ 



stands stem on toward the forts. Her crew are as fine a 
set of men as I have seen of late days on board a man-of- 
war. They are healthy, well fed, regularly paid, and can be 
relied on to do their duty to a man. As far as I could judge, 
the impression of the officers was that General Bragg would 
not to expose himself to the heavy chastisement which, in 
their belief, awaits him, if he is rash enough to open fire 
upon Fort Pickens. As Captain Porter is not the senior 
officer of the fleet, he signaled to the flag-ship, and was 
desired to send us on board. 

One more prize has been made this morning — a little 
schooner with a crew of Italians and laden with vegetables. 
This master, a Roman of Civita Vecchia, pretends to be in 
great trouble, in order to squeeze a good price out of the 
captain for his " tutti fruti e cosi diver si.'' The officers as- 
sured me that all the statements made by the coasting 
skippers, when they return to port from the squadron, are lies 
from beginning to end. 

A ten-oared barge carried the party to the United States 
frigate Sabine, on board of which Flag-Captain Adams 
hoists his pennant. On our way we had a fair view of the 
Brooklyn, whose armament of twenty two heavy guns is said 
to be the most formidable battery in the American navy. 
Her anti-type, the Sabine, an old-fashioned fifty-gun frigate, 
as rare an object upon modern seas as an old post-coach is 
upon modern roads, is reached at last. As one treads her 
decks, the eyes, accusomed for so many weeks to the out- 
landish uniforms of brave but undisciplined Southern Vol- 
unteers, feel en pays de connaissance, when they rest upon 
the solid mass of three hundred or four hundred quid-roll- 
ing, sunburnt, and resolute-looking blue-shirted tars, to 
whom a three years' cruise has imparted a family aspect^ 
which makes them almost as hard to distinguish apart as so 
many Chinamen. 

A believer in the serpent-symbol might feel almost tempt- 
ed to regard the log of the Sabine as comprising the Alpha 
and the Omega of, at least, the last half century of the 
American Republic. Her keel was laid shortly after our 
last war with Brother Jonathan, and so long as the Temple 
of Janus remained closed — her size having rendered her 
unfit to participate in what is called the Mexican war — she 
remained in the shiphouse of the Navy Yard which had 
witnessed her baptism. In the year 1858 she was summon- 
ed from her retirement to officiate as flagship of the " Para- 



THE CIYIL WAK IN AMERICA. 107 

guay expedition," and after having conveyed the American 
Commissioner to Montevideo, whence he proceeded with a 
flotilla of steamers and sloops-of-war up to Corrientes, and 
thence in the temporary flagship, the steamer Fulton, to 
Assumpcion, she brought him back to New York in May, 
1859, and was then dispatched to complete her cruise as part 
of the Home Squadron in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of 
Mexico. During the concluding months of her cruise the 
political complications of North and South burst into the 
present rupture, and the day before our visit one of her lieu- 
tenants, a North Carolinian, had left her to espouse, as nearly 
all the Southern officers of both army and navy have done, 
the cause of his native State. Captain Adams is in a still 
more painful predicament. During his eventful voyage, 
which commenced a six days' experience in the terrible 
Bermuda cyclone of November, 1858, he had been a stranger 
to the bitter sectional animosities engendered by the last 
election; and had recently joined the blockade of this port, 
where he finds a son enlisted in the ranks of the C. S. A., 
and learns that two others from part of the Virginia divisions 
of Mr. Jefferson Davis's forces. Born in Pennsylvania, he 
married in Louisiana, where he has a plantation and the re- 
mainder of his family, and he smiles grimly as one of our 
companions brings him the playful message from his daugh- 
ter, who has been elected vivandiere of a New Orleans 
regiment, " that she trusts he may be starved while blockad- 
ing the South, and that she intends to push on to Washing- 
ton and get a lock of Old Abe's hair " — ■ a Sioux lady would 
have said his scalp. 

The veteran sailor's sad story demands deep sympathy. I, 
however, cannot help enjoying at least the variety of hear- 
ing a little of the altera pars. It is now nearly six weeks 
since I entered " Dixie's Land," during which period I must 
confess I have had a sufficiency of the music and drums, the 
cavaliering and the roystering of the Southern gallants. As 
an impartial observer, I may say I find less bitterness and 
denunciation, but quite as dogged a resolution upon the 
Roundhead side. Some experience, or at least observation 
of the gunpowder argument, has taught us that attack is al- 
ways a more grateful office than defence, and, if we are to 
judge of the sturdy resolution of the inmates of Fort 
Pickens by the looks of the officers and crews of the fleet, 
Fort Pickens will fall no easy prize, if at all. 

After some conversation with Captain Adams, and the 



m 



108 THE CITIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

ready hospitality of his cabin, he said finally he would take 
on himself to permit me and the party to land at the Navy 
Yard and to visit the enemy's quarters, relying on my 
character as a neutral and a subject of Great Britain that no 
improper advantage would be taken of the permission. In 
giving that leave he was, he said, well aware that he was 
laying himself open to attack, but he acted on his own judg- 
ment and responsibility. We must, however, hoist a flag of 
truce, as he had been informed by General Bragg that he 
considered the intimation he had received from the fleet of 
the blockade of the port was a declaration of war, and that 
he would fire on any vessel from the fleet which approached 
his command. I bade good-by to Captain Adams with 
sincere regret, and if — but I may not utter the wish here. 
Our barge was waiting to take us to the Oriental, in which 
we sailed pleasantly away down to the Powhatan to inform 
Captain Porter I had received premission to go on shore. 
Another officer was in his cabin when I entered — Captain 
Poore, of the Brooklyn — and he seemed a little surprised 
when he heard that Captain Adams had given leave to all to 
go on shore. " What, all these editors of Southern news- 
papers who are with you. Sir ?" I assured him they were 
nothing of the kind, and after a few kind words I made my 
adieu, and went on board the Diana with my companions. 

Hoisting one of our two table-cloths to the masthead as a 
flag of truce, we dropped slowly with the tide through the 
channel that runs parallel to one face of Fort Pickens. The 
wind favored us but little, and the falling breeze enabled all 
on board to inspect deliberately the seemingly artistic pre- 
parations for the threatened attack which frowns and bristles 
from three miles of forts and batteries arrayed around the 
slight indenture opposite. Heavy sand-bag traverses protect 
the corners of the parapet, and seem solid enough to defy 
the heavy batteries ensconced in earthworks around the 
Lighthouse, which to an outside glance seems the most for- 
midable point of an attack, directed as it is against the 
weaker flank of the fort at its most vulnerable angle. 

A few soldiers and officers upon the rampart appeared to 
be inhaling the freshening breeze which arose to waft the 
schooner across the channel, and enable her to coast the 
mainshore, so that all could take note of the necklace of 
bastions, earthworks, and columbiads with which General 
Bragg hopes to throttle his adversary. We passed by Bar- 
rancas, the nearest point of attack (a mile and a quarter), 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 109 

the Commander-in-Chief's head- quarters, the barracks, and 
the hospital successively, and as the vessel approached the 
landing-pier of the Navy Yard one could hear the bustle of 
the military and the hammers of the artificers, and descry 
the crimson and blue trappings of Zouaves, recalling Crimean 
reminiscences. A train of heavy tumbrils, drawn by three 
or four pairs of mules, was the first indication of a transport 
system in the army of the Confederate States, and the high- 
bred chargers mounted by the escorts of these ammunition 
wagons corroborated the accounts of the wealth and breed- 
ing of its volunteer cavalry. The Diana now skirted the 
Navy Yard, the neat dwellings of which, and the profusion 
of orange and fig groves in which they are embosomed, have 
an aspect of tropical shade and repose, much at variance 
with the stern preparations before us.. Our skipper let go his 
anchor at a respectful distance from the quay, evincing a re- 
gard for martial law. that contrasted strangely with the im- 
patience of control elsewhere manifested throughout this 
land, and almost inspiring the belief that no other rule can 
ever restore the lost bump of veneration to American crani- 
ology. 

While the master of the Diana was skulling his leaky punt 
ashore to convey my letters of introduction to the Command- 
er-in-chief, I had leisure to survey the long, narrow, low 
sand belt of the island opposite, which loses itself in the 
distance, and disappears in the ocean forty-seven miles from 
Fort Pickens. It is so nearly level with the sea that I 
could make out the main-yards of the Sabine and the 
Brooklyn, anchored outside the island within range of the 
Navy Yard, which is destined to receive immediate atten- 
tion whenever the attack shall begin. Pursuing my reflec- 
tions upon the morale of the upper and nether millstones 
between which the Diana is moored, I am sadly puazled by 
the anomalous ethics or metaphysics of this singular war, 
the preparations for which vary so essentially — it were sin 
to say ludicrously — from all ancient and modern belligerent 
usages. Here we have an important fortress, threatened 
with siege for the last sixty days, suffering the assailants of 
the flag it defends to amass battery upon battery, and string 
the whole coast of low hills opposite with every variety of 
apparatus for its own devastation, without throwing a timely 
shell to prevent their establishment. 

War has been virtually declared, since letters of marque 
and a corresponding blockade admit of no other interpreta- 
10 



no 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



'I 



tion, and yet but last week two Mobile steamers, laden with 
£50,000 worth, of provisions for the beleaguering camp, 
were stopped by the blockading fleet, and, though not pre- 
mitted to enter this harbor, were allowed to return to Mobile 
untouched, the commander thinking it quite punishment 
enough for the Rebels to thus compel them to return to 
Mobile, and carry up the Alabama River to Montgomery 
this mass of eatables, which would have to be dispatched 
thence by rail to this place ! Such practical jokes lend a 
tinge of innocence to the premonitories of this strife which 
will hardly survive the first bloodshed. 

The skipper returned from shore with an orderly, who 
brought the needful permission to haul the Diana alongside 
the wharf, where I landed, and was conducted by an aide of 
the Quartermaster-General through the shady streets of this 
graceful little village, which covers an inclosure of three 
hundred acres, and, with the adjoining forts, cost the United 
States over £6,000,000 sterling, which may have something 
to do with the President's determination to hold a property 
under so heavy an hypothecation. Irish landlords, wjth en- 
cumbered estates, have no such simple mode of obtaining 
an acquittal. 

The Navy Yard is, properly speaking, a settlement of 
exceedingly neat detached houses, with gardens in front, 
porticoes, pillars, verandahs, and Venetian blinds to aid the 
dense trees in keeping off the scorching rays of the sun, 
which is intensely powerful in the summer, and is now 
blazing so fiercely as to force one to admit the assertion that 
the average temperature is as high as that of Calcutta to be 
very probable. The grass-plots under these tree are covered 
with neat piles of cannon balls, mostly of small size ; two 
obsolete mortars — one dated 1776 — are placed in the main 
avenue Tents are pitched under the trees, and the houses 
are all occupied by ofln^cers, who are chatting, smoking, and 
drinking at the open windows. A number of men in semi- 
military dresses of various sorts and side arms are lounging 
about the quays and the lawns before the houses. Into one 
of these I am escorted, and find myself at a very pleasant 
mess, of whom the greater number are ofl&cers of the Zouave 
Corps, from New Orleans — one, a Dane, has served at 
Idstedt, Kiel, Frederichstadt ; another foreigner has seen 
service in South America ; another has fought in half the 
insurrectionary wars in Europe. The wine is abundant, the 
fare good, the laughter and talk loud. Mr. Davis has been 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. Ill 

down all day from Montgomery, accompanied by Mrs. Davis, 
Mr. Maloney, and Mr. Wigfall, and they all think his 
presence means immediate action. 

The only ship here is the shell of the old Fulton, which 
is on the stocks, but the works of the Navy Yard are useful 
in casting shot, shell, and preparing munitions of war. An 
aide-de-camp from General Bragg entered as we were sit- 
ting at table, and invited me to attend him to the General's 
quarters. The road, as I found, was very long and very 
disagreeable, owing to the depth of the sand, into which the 
foot sank at every step up to the ankle. Passing the front 
of an extended row of the clean, airy, pretty villas inside the 
Navy Yard, we passed the gate on exhibiting our passes, 
and proceeded by the sea beach, one side of which is lined 
with houses, a few j^ards from the surf. These houses are £ill 
occupied by troops, or are used as bar-rooms or magazines. 
At intervals a few guns have been placed along the beach, 
covered by sand-bags, parapets, and traverses. As we toiled 
along in the sand, the aide hailed a cart, pressed it into the 
service, and we continued our journey less painfully. Sud- 
denly a tall, straight-backed man in a blue frock-coat, with 
a star on the epaulette strap, a smart kepi, and trowsers 
with gold stripe, and large brass spurs, rode past on a high- 
stepping, powerful charger, followed by an orderly. " There 
is General Bragg," said his aide. The General turned 
round, reined up, and I was presented as I sat in my state 
chariot. The commander of the Confederated States Army 
at Pensacola is about forty-two years of age, of a spare 
and powerful frame; his face is dark, and marked with 
deep lines, his mouth large, and squarely set in determined 
jaws, and his eyes, sagacious, penetrating, and not by 
any means unkindly, look out at you from beetle brows 
which run straight across and spring into a thick tuft of 
black hair, which is thickest over the nose, where naturally 
it usually leaves an intervening space. His hair is dark, 
and he wears such regulation whiskers as were the delight 
of our generals a few years ago. His manner is quick and 
frank, and his smile is very pleasing and agreeable. The 
General would not hear of my continuing my journey to his 
quarters in a cart, and his orderly brought up an ambu- 
lance, drawn by a smart pair of mules, in which I com- 
pleted it satisfactorily. 

The end of the journey through the sandy plain was at 
hand, for in an inclosure of a high wall there stood a well- 



il't;,' 



112 THE CIYIL WAK IN AMERICA. 

shaded mansion, amid trees of live oak and sycamore, with 
sentries at the gate and horses held by orderlies under the 
portico. General Bragg received me at the top of the steps 
which lead to the verandah, and, after a few earnest and 
complimentary words, conducted me to his office, where he 
spoke of the contest in which he was to play so important a 
part in terms of unaffected earnestness. Why else had he 
left his estates ? After the Mexican war he had retired from 
the United States Artillery ; but when his State was mena- 
ced he was obliged to defend her. He was satisfied the 
North meant nothing but subjugation. All he wanted was 
peace. Slavery was an institution for which he was not 
responsible ; but his property was guaranteed to him by 
law, and it consisted of slaves. Why did the enemy take 
oiF slaves from Tortugas to work for them at Pickens ? 
Because whites could not do their work. It was quite im- 
possible to deny his earnestness, sincerity, and zeal -as he 
spoke, and one could only wonder at the difference made by 
the "standpoint" from which the question is reviewed. 
General Bragg finally, before we supped, took down his 
plans and showed me the position of every gun in his works 
and all his batteries. He showed the greatest clearness of 
unreserved openness in his communications, and was anxi- 
ous to point out that he had much greater difficulties to con- 
tend with than General Beauregard had at Charleston. The 
inside of Pickens is well known to him, as he was stationed 
there the very first tour of duty which he had after he left 
West Point. It was late at night when I returned on one 
of the General's horses toward the Navy Yard. The order- 
ly who accompanied me was, he said, a Mississippi planter, 
but he had left his wife and family to the care of the ne- 
groes, had turned up all his cotton land and replanted it with 
corn, and had come off to the wars. Once only were we chal- 
lenged, and I was only required to show my pass as I was 
getting on board the schooner. Before I left General Bragg 
he was good enough to say he would send down one of his 
aides-de-camp and horses early in the morning, to give me 
a look at the works. 



|1 illllllill'Hiiii 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 113 



LETTER XII. 

New Orleans, May 25, 1861. 

There are daubts arising in my mind respecting the 
number of armed men actually in the field in the South, 
and the amount of arms in the possession of the Federal 
forces. The constant advertisements and appeals for " a 
few more men to complete " such and such companies fur- 
nish some sort of evidence that men are still wanting. But 
a painful and startling insight into the manner in which 
*' Volunteers " have been sometimes obtained has been 
afforded to me at New Orleans. In no country in the 
world 4iave outrages on British subjects been so frequent 
and so wanton as in the States of America. They have 
been frequent, perhaps, because they have generally been 
attended with impunity. Englishmen, however, will be 
still a little surprised to hear that within a few days Brit- 
ish subjects living in New Orleans have been seized, knocked 
down, carried off from their labor at the wharf and the work- 
shop, and forced by violence to serve in the " Volunteer " 
ranks ! These cases are not isolated. They are not in 
twos and threes, but in tens and twenties ; they have not 
occurred stealtl^ily or in by-ways, they have taken place in 
open day, and in the streets of New Orleans. These men 
have been dragged along like felons, protesting in vain 
that they were British subjects. Fortunately, their friends 
bethought them that there was still a British Consul in the 
city, who would protect his countrymen — English, Irish, 
or Scotch. Mr. Mure, when he heard of the reports and of 
the evidence, made energetic representations to the authori- 
ties, who, after some evasion, gave orders that the impressed 
*' Volunteers " should be discharged, and the " Tiger Rifles" 
and other companies were deprived of the services of thirty- 
five British subjects whom they had taken from their usual 
avocations. The Mayor promises it shall not occur again. 
It is high time that such acts should be put a stop to, and 
that the mob of New Orleans should be taught to pay some 
regard to the usuages of civilized nations. There are some 
strange laws here and elsewhere in reference to compulsory 
service on the part of foreigners which it would be well to 
inquire into, and Lord John Russell may be able to deal 
with them at a favorable opportunity. As to any liberty of 
10* 



114 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

opinion or real freedom here, the boldest Southerner would 
not dare to say a shadow of either exists. It may be as bad 
in the North, for all I know ; but it must be remembered 
that in all my communications I speak of things as they 
appear to me to be in the place where I am at the time. 
The most cruel and atrocious acts are perpetrated by the 
rabble who style themselves citizens. The national failing 
of curiosity and prying into other people's affairs is now 
rampant, and assumes the name and airs of patriotic vigi- 
lance. Every stranger is watched, every word is noted, 
espionage commands every keyhole and every letter-box ; 
love of country takes to eavesdropping, and freedom shaves 
men's heads, and packs men up in boxes for the utterance 
of "Abolition sentiments." In this* city there is a terrible 
substratum of crime and vice, violence, misery, and fhurder, 
over which the wheels of Cotton King's chariot rumble grat- 
ingly, and on which rest in dangerous security the feet of 
,his throne. There are numbers of negroes who are sent 
out on the streets every day with orders not to return with 
less than seventy-five cents — anything more they can keep. 
But if they do not gain that — about three shillings and 
six pence a day — they are liable to punishment ; they may 
be put into jail on charges of laziness, and may be flogged 
ad libitum, and are sure to be half starved. Can anything, 
then, be more suggestive than this paragraph, which ap- 
peared in last night's papers. " Only three coroners in- 
quests were held yesterday on persons found drowned in 
the river, names unknown!" The italics are mine. Over 
and over again has the boast been repeated to me that on 
the plantations lock and key are unknown or unused in the 
planters' houses. But in the cities they are much used, 
though scarcely trusted. It appears, indeed, that unless a 
slave has made up his or her mind to incur the dreadful 
penalties of flight, there would be no inducement to com- 
mit theft, for money or jewels would be useless ; search 
would be easy, detection nearly certain. That all the slaves 
are lot indifferent to the issues before them, is certain. At 
*ne nouse of a planter, the other day, one of them asked 
my friend, " Will we be made to work, massa, when ole 
English come ? " An old domestic in the house of a gen- 
tleman in this city said, " There are few whites in this 
place who ought not to be killed for their cruelty to us." 
Another said, " Oh, just wait till they attack Pickens ! " 
These little hints are significant enough coupled with the 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 115 

notices of runaways, and the lodgments in tlie police jails, 
to show that all is not quiet below the surface. The hold- 
ers, however, are firm, and tHere have been many paragraphs 
stating that slaves have contributed to the various funds 
for State defence, and that they generally show the very 
best spirit. 

By the proclamation of Governor Magoffin, a copy of 
which I inclose, you will see that the Governor of the Com- 
monwealth of Kentucky and Commander-in-chief of all her 
military forces on land or w^ater, warns all States, separated 
or united, especially the United States and the Confederate 
States, that he will fight their troops if they attempt to enter 
his Commonwealth. Thus Kentucky sets up for herself, 
while Virginia is on the eve of destruction, and an actual 
invasion has taken place of her soil. It is exceedingly diffi- 
cult of comprehension that, with the numerous troops, artil- 
lery, and batteries, which the Confederate journals asserted 
to be in readiness to repel attack, an invasion which took 
place in face of the enemy, and was effected over a broad 
river, with shores readily defensible, should have been un- 
resisted. Here it is said there is a mighty plan, in pursu- 
ance of which the United States troops are to be allowed to 
make their way into Virginia, that they may at some con- 
venient place be eaten up by their enemies ; and if we hear 
that the Confederates at Harper's Ferry retain their posi- 
tion one may believe some such plan really exists, although 
it is rather doubtful strategy to permit the United States 
forces to gain possession of the right bank of the Potomac. 
Should the position at Harper's Ferry be really occupied 
with a design of using it as a point d'appui for movements 
against the North, and any large number of troops be with- 
drawn from Annapolis, Washington, and Baltimore, so as to 
leave those places comparatively undefended, an irruption in 
force of the Confederates on the right flank and in rear of 
General Scott's army, might cause most serious inconven- 
ience and endanger his communications, if not the possession 
of the places indicated. 

Looking at the map, it is easy to comprehend that a 
march southwards from Alexandria could be .combined with 
an offensive movement by the forces said to be concentrated 
in and around Fortress Monroe, so as to place Richmond 
itself in danger, and, if any such measure is contemplated, a 
battle must be fought in that vicinity, or the prestige of the 
South will receive very great damage. It is impossible for 



116 THE CIVIL WA.R IN AMERICA. 

any one to understand the movements of the troops on both 
sides. These companies are scattered broadcast over the 
enormous expanse of the States, and, where concentrated 
in any considerable numbers, seem to have had their po- 
sition determined rather by local circumstances than by 
considerations connected with the general plan of a large 
I campaign. 

■'i In a few days the object of the present movement will be 

better understood, and it is probable that your correspond- 
ent at New York will send, by the same mail which carries 
this, exceedingly important information, to which I, in my 
present position, can have no access. The influence of the 
blockade will be severely felt, combined with the strict in- 
terruption of all intercourse by the Mississippi. Although 
the South boasts of its resources and of its amazing richness 
and abundance of produce, the constant advices in the jour- 
nals to increase the breadth of land under corn, and to neg- 
lect the cotton crop in consideration of the paramount im- 
portance of the cause, indicate an apprehension of a scarcity 
of food if the struggle be prolonged. 

Under any circumstances, the patriotic ladies and gentle- 
men who are so anxious for the war must make up their 
minds to suffer a little in the flesh. All they can depend on 
is a supply of home luxuries ; Indian corn and wheat, the 
flesh of pigs, eked out with a small supply of beef and mut- 
ton, will constitute the staple of their food. Butter there 
will be none, and wine will speedily rise to an enormous 
price. Nor will cofl*ee and tea be had, except at a rate 
which will place them out of the reach of the mass of the 
;. community. These are the smallest sacrifices of war. The 

'! J blockade is not yet enforced here, and the privateers of the 

. I port are extremely active, and have captured vessels with 

more energy than wisdom. 

The day before yesterday, ships belonging to the United 
States in the river were seized by the Confederation au- 
^|ll thorities, on the ground that war had broken out, and that 

"' the time of grace accorded to the enemy's traders had ex- 

pired. Great was the rush to the Consul's office to transfer 
the menaced property from ownership under the Stars and 
Strip 3S to British hands ; but Mr. Mure refused to recog- 
nize any transactions of the kind, unless sales hona fide had 
been effected before the action of the Confederate Marshals. 
At Charleston the blockade has been raised, owing, ap- 
parently, to some want of information or of means on the 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA. 117 

part of the United States Government, and considerable in- 
convenience may be experienced by them in consequence. 
On the 11th, the United States steam frigate Niagara ap- 
peared outside and warned oft* several British ships, and on 
the 13th she was visited by Mr. Bunch, our Consul, who 
was positively assured by the officers on board that eight or 
ten vessels would be down to join in enforcing the blockade. 
On the 15th, however, the Niagara departed, leaving the 
port open, and several vessels have since run in and ob- 
tained fabulous freights, suggesting to the minds of the 
owners of the vessels which were warned off" the propriety 
of making enormous demands for compensation. The 
Southerners generally believe not only that their Confed- 
eracy will be acknowledged, but that the blockade will be 
disregarded by England. Their affection for her is propor- 
tionably prodigious, and reminds one of the intensity of the 
gratitude which consists in lively expectations of favors to 



New Orleans, May 21, 1861. 
Yesterday morning early I left Mobile in the steamer 
Florida, which arrived in the Lake of Pontchartrain late at 
night, or early this morning. The voyage, if it can be 
called so, would have offered, in less exciting times, much 
that was interesting — certainly, to a stranger, a good deal 
that was novel — for our course lay inside a chain, almost 
uninterrupted, of reefs, covered with sand and pine tisees, 
exceedingly narrow, so that the surf and waves of the ocean 
beyond could be seen rolling in foam through the foliage of 
the forest, or on the white beach, while the sea lake on 
which our steamer was speeding lay in a broad, smooth 
sheet, just crisped by the breeze, between the outward bar- 
rier and the wooded shores of the mainland. Innumei'able 
creeks, or " bayous," as they are called, pierce the gloom of 
these endless pines. Now and then a sail could be made 
out, stealing through the mazes of the marshy waters. If 
the mariner knows his course, he may find deep water in 
most of the channels from the outer sea into these inner 
waters, on which the people of the South will greatly de- 
pend for any coasting trade, and supplies coastwise, they 
may require, as well as for the safe retreat of their priva- 
teers. A few miles from Mobile, the steamer turning out 
of the bay, entered upon the series of these lakes through a 
narrow channel called Grant's Pass, which some enterprising 



118 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

person, not improbably of Scottish extraction, constructed 
for bis own behoof by an ingenious watercut, and for the 
use of which, and of a little iron light-house that he ha« 
built close at hand, on the model of a pepper-castor, he 
charges toll on passing vessels. This island is scarcely 
three feet above the water ; it is not over twenty yards 
brxiad and one hundred and fifty yards long. A number of 
men were, however, busily engaged in throwing up the 
sand, and arms gleamed amid some tents pitched around the 
solitary wooden shed in the centre. A schooner lay at the 
wharf, laden with two guns and sand-bags, and as we passed 
through the narrow channel several men in military nni- 
foim, who were on board, took their places in a boat which 
pushed off for them, and were conveyed to their tiny sta- 
tion, of which one shell would make a dust-heap. The Mo- 
bilians are fortifying themselves as best they can, and seem, 
not unadvisedly, jealous of gunboats and small war steam- 
ers. On more than one outlying sand- bank toward New 
Orleans are they to be seen at work on other batteries, and 
they are busied in repairing, as well as they can, old Spanish 
and new United States works which had been abandoned, 
or which were never completed. The news has just been 
reported, indeed, that the batteries they were preparing on 
Ship Island have been destroyed and burnt by a vessel of 
war of the United States. For the whole day we saw only 
a few coasting craft and the return steamers from New Or- 
leans ; but in the evening a large schooner, which sailed like 
a witch and was crammed with men, challenged my atten- 
tion, and on looking at her through the glass I could make 
out reasons enough for desiring to avoid her if one was a 
quiet, short-handed, well-filled old merchantman. There 
could be no mistake about certain black objects on the 
deck. She lay as low as a yacht, and there were some fifty 
or sixty men in the waist and forecastle. On approaching 
New Orleans, there are some settlements rather than cities, 
II i|t!, although they are called by the latter title, visible on the 

right hand, embowered in woods and stretching along the 
beach. Such are the "Mississippi City," Pass Cagoula, 
and Pass Christian, &c. — all resorts of the inhabitants of 
New Orleans during the summer heats and the epidemics 
which play such havoc with life from time to time. Seen 
from sea, these huge hamlets look very picturesque. The 
detached villas, of every variety of architecture, are painted 
brightly and stand in gardens in the midst of magnolias and 



■;; : liiri; 



THE CIYTL WAK IN AMEKICA. 119 

rhododendrons. Very long and slender piers lead far into 
the sea before the very door, and at the extremity of each 
there is a bathing box for the inmates. The general effect 
of one of these settlements, with its light domes and spires, 
long lines of whitewashed railings, and houses of every hue 
set in the dark green of the pines, is very pretty. The 
•steamer touched at two of them. There was a motley group 
of colored people on the jetty, a few whites, of whom the 
males were nearly all in uniform ; a few bales of goods were 
landed or put on board, and that was all one could see of 
the life of that place. Our passengers never ceased talking 
politics all day, except when they were eating or drinking, 
for I regret to say they can continue to chew and to spit 
while they are engaged in political discussion. Some were 
rude provincials in uniform. One was an acquaintance 
from the far East, who had been a lieutenant on board of 
the Minnesota, and had resigned his commission in order 
to take service under the Confederate flag. The fiercest 
among them all was a thin little lady, who uttered certain 
energetic aspirations for the possession of portions of Mr. 
Lincoln's person, and who was kind enough to express in- 
tense satisfaction at the intelligence that there w-as small- 
pox among the garrison at Monroe. In the evening a little 
difficulty occurred among some of the military gentlemen, 
during which one of the logicians drew a revolver, and pre- 
sented it at the head of the gentleman who w^as opposed to 
his peculiar views, but I am happy to say that an arrange- 
ment, to which I was an unwilling " party," for the row 
took place within a yard of me, was entered into for a fight 
to come off on shore in two days after they landed, which 
led to the postponement of immediate murder. 

The entrance to Pontchartrain Lake is infamous for the 
abundance of its mosquitoes, and it was with no small satis- 
faction that we experienced a small tornado, a thunder- 
storm, and a breeze of wind which saved us from their fury. 
It is a dismal canal through a swamp. At daylight the ves- 
sel lay alongside a wharf surrounded by small boats and 
bathing stations. A railway-shed receives us on shore, and 
a train is soon ready to start for the city, which is six miles 
distant. For a few hundred yards the line passes between 
wooden houses, used as restaurants, or " restaurats," as 
they are called hereaway, kept by people with French 
names and using the French tongue ; then the rail plunges 
through a swamp, dense as an Indian j ungle, and with the 



11 



120 THE Civil. WAR IN AMERICA. 

overflowings of the Mississippi creeping in feeble, shallow 
currents over the black mud. Presently the spires of 
churches are seen rising above the underwood and rushes. 
Then we come out on a wide marshy plain, in which flocks 
of cattle up to the belly in mud are floundering to get at the 
rich herbage on the unbroken surface. Next comes a wide- 
spread suburb of exceedingly broad lanes, lined with small 
one-storied houses. The inhabitants are pale, lean, and 
sickly, and there is about the men a certain look, almost pe- 
culiar to the fishy-fleshy populations of Levantine towns, 
which I cannot describe, but which exists all along the 
Mediterranean seaboard, and crops out here again. The 
drive through badly-paved streets enables us to see that 
there is an air of French civilization about New Orleans. 
The streets are wisely adapted to the situation ; they are 
not so wide as to permit the sun to have it all his own way 
from rising to setting. The shops are " magasins ;" cafes 
abound. The colored population looks well dressed, and is 
going to mass or market in the early morning. The pave- 
ments are crowded with men in uniform, in which the taste 
of France is generally followed. The carriage stops at 
last, and rest comes gratefully after the stormy night, the 
mosquitoes, "the noise of the captains" (at the bar), and 
the shouting. 

May 22. — The prevalence of the war spirit here i^ in 
everything somewhat exaggerated by the fervor of Gallic 
origin, and the violence of popular opinion and the tyranny 
of the mass are as potent as in any place in the South. The 
great house of Brown Brothers, of Liverpool and New York, 
has closed its business here in consequence of the intimida- 
tion of the mob, or, as the phrase is, of the " citizens," who 
were " excited " by seeing that the firm had subscribed to 
the New York fund, on its sudden resurrection after Fort 
Sumter had fallen. Some other houses are about to pursue 
the same course ;• all large business transactions are over for 
the season, and the migratory population which comes here 
to trade has taken wing much earlier than usual. But the 
streets are full of " Turcos " and " Zouaves " and " Chas- 
seurs ; " the tailors are busy night and day on uniforms; 
the walls are covered with placards for recruits, the seam- 
stresses are sewing flags, the ladies are carding lint and 
stitching cartridge bags. The newspapers are crowded with 
advertisements relating to the formation of new companies 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEEICA. 121 

of Volunteers and the election of officers. There are Pick- 
wick Rifles, Lafayette, Beauregard, Irish, German, Scotch, 
ItaHan, Spanish, Crescent, McMahon — innumerable — Rifle 
Volunteers of all names and nationalities, and the Meagher 
Rifles, indignant with " that valiant son of Mars " because 
he has drawn his sword for the North, have re-baptized 
themselves, and are going to seek glory under a more aus- 
picious nomenclature. About New Orleans 1 shall have 
more to say when I see more of it. At present it looks 
very like an outlying suburb of Chalons when the Grand 
Camp is at its highest military development, although the 
thermometer is rising gradually, and obliges one to know 
occasionally that it can be 95° in the shade already. In the 
course of my journeying southward I have failed to find 
much evidence that there is any apprehension on the part of 
the planters of a servile insurrection, or that the slaves are 
taking much interest in the coming contest, or know what it 
is about. But I have my suspicions that all is not right ; 
paragraphs meet the eye, and odd sentences strike the ear, 
and little facts here and there come to the knowledge which 
arouse curiosity and doubt. There is one stereotyped sen- 
tence which I am tired of: " Our negroes, Sir, are the hap- 
piest, the most contented, and the best off' of any people in 
the world." 

The violence and reiterancy of this formula cause one to 
inquire whether anything which demands such insistance 
is really in the condition predicated, and, for myself, I al- 
ways say, " It may be so, but as yet I do not see the proof 
of it. The negroes do not look to be what you say they 
are." For the present that is enough as to one's own 
opinions. Externally the paragraphs which attract attention, 
and the acts of the authorities, are inconsistent with the 
notion that the negroes are all very good, very happy, or at 
all contented, not to speak of their being in the superlative 
condition of enjoyment ; and, as I only see them, as yet, 
in the most superficial way, and under the most favorable 
circumstances, it may be that when the cotton-picking sea- 
son is at its height, and it lasts for several months, when 
the labor is continuous from sunrise to sunset, there is less 
reason to accept the assertions as so largely and generally 
true of the vast majority of the slaves. " There is an ex- 
cellent gentleman over there," said a friend to me, " who 
gives his overseers a premium of ^10 on the birth of every 
child on his plantation." " Why so ? " " Oh, in order that 
11 



122 THE CIVIL WAK IN AMEKICA. 

the overseers may not work the women in the family- way 
overmuch." There is little use in this part of the world in 
making use of inferences. But where overseers do not get 
the premium, it may be supposed they do work the preg- 
nant women too much. Here are two paragraphs which do 
not look very well as they stand : 

i|« " Those negroes who were taken with a sudden leaving on Sunday 

night last will save the country the expenses of their burial if they 
keep dark from these parts. They and other of the ' breden ' will not 
be permitted to express themselves quite so freely in regard to their 
braggadocio designs upon virtue in the absence of volunteers." — 
[Wilmington (Clintock County, Ohio.) Watchman (Republican). 

" Served Him Right. — One day last week some colored individual, 
living near South Plymouth, made a threat that, in case a civil war 
should occur, ' he would be one to ravish the wife of every Democrat , 
and to help murder their offspring and wash his hands in their blood.' 
For this diabolical assertion he was hauled up before a committee of 
white citizens, who adjudged him forty stripes on his naked back. He 
was accordingly stripped, and the lashes were laid on with such good 
will, that the blood flowed at the end of the castigation. — [Washing- 
ton (Fayette County, Ohio,) Register (Neutral). 

It is reported that the patrols are strengthened, and I could 
not help hearing a charming young lady say to another, the 
other evening, that " she would not be afraid to go back to the 
plantation, though Mrs. Brown Jones said she was afraid her 
negroes were after mischief." 

There is a great scarcity of powder, which is one of the 
reasons, perhaps, why it has not yet been expended as 
largely as might be expected from the tone and temper on both 
, * sides. There is no sulphur in the States — nitre and char- 

; ^t coal abound. The sea is open to the North. There is no 

■^flj great overplus of money on either side. In Missouri, the 

!||'j' interest on the State debt due in July will be used to pro- 

' cure arms for the State volunteers to carry on the war. The 

South is preparing for the struggle by sowing a most un- 
usual quantity of grain, and in many fields corn and maize 
have been planted instead of cotton. " Stay laws," by 
which all inconveniences arising from the usual, dull, old- 
fashioned relations between debtor and creditor are avoided 
(at least by the debtor), have been adopted in most of the 
Seceding States. How is it that the State Legislatures 
seem to be in the hands of the debtors, and not of the 
creditors ? 

There are some who cling to the idea that there will be 
no war, after all j but no one believes that the South will 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 123 

ever go back of its own free will, and the only reason that 
can be given for those who hope rather than think in that 
way, is to be found in the faith that the North will accept 
some mediation, and will let the South go in peace. But 
could there, can there be peace ? The frontier question, 
the adjustment of various claims, the demands for indem- 
nity, or for privileges or exemptions, in the present state of 
feeling, can have but one result. The task of mediation is 
sure to be as thankless as abortive. Assuredly the proffered 
service of England would, on one side at least, be received 
with something like insult. Nothing but adversity can 
teach these people its own most useful lessons. Material 
prosperity has puffed up the citizens to an unwholesome 
state. The toils and sacrifices of the Old World have been 
taken by them as their birthright, and they have accepted 
the fruits of allthat the science, genius, suffering, and trials 
of mankind in time past have wrought out, perfected, and 
won as their own peculiar inheritance, while they have ig- 
norantly rejected the advice and scorned the lessons with 
which these were accompanied. 

May 23. — The Congress at Montgomery, having sat 
with closed doors almost since it met, has now adjourned 
till July the 20th, when it will reassemble at Richmond, in 
Virginia, which is thus designated, for the time, capital of 
the Confederate States of America. Richmond, the prin- 
cipal city of the old Dominion, is about one hundred 
miles in a straight line south by west of Washington. 
The rival capitals will thus be in very close proximity by 
rail and by steam, by land and by water. The movement 
is significant. It will tend to hasten a collision betweefi 
the forces which are collected on the opposite sides of the 
Potomac. Hitherto, Mr. Jefferson Davis has not evinced 
all the sagacity and energy, in a military sense, which he is 
said to possess. It was bad strategy to menace Washington 
before he could act. His Secretary of War, Mr. Walker, 
many weeks ago, in a public speech, announced the inten- 
tion of marching upon the capital. If it was meant to do 
so, the blow should have been struck silently. If it was 
not intended to seize upon Washington, the threat had a 
very disastrous effect on the South, as it excited the North 
to immediate action, and caused General Scott to concen- 
trate his troops on points which present many advantages 
in the face of any operations which may be considered 



124 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



I 



necessary along the lines either of defence or attack. The 
movement against the Norfolk Navy Yard strengthened 
Fortress Monroe, and the Potomac and Chesapeake were 
secured to the United States. The fortified ports held by 
the Virginians and the Confederate States troops, are not of 
much value as long as the streams are commanded by the 
enemy's steamers ; and General Scott has shown that he 
has not outlived either his reputation or his vigor by the 
steps, at once wise and rapid, he has taken to curb the mal- 
contents in Maryland, and to open his communications 
through the City of Baltimore. Although immense levies 
of men may be got together on both sides for purposes of 
local defence or for State operations, it seems to me that it 
will be very difficult to move these masses in regular armies. 
The men are not disposed for regular, lengthened service, 
and there is an utter want of field trains, equipment, and 
commissariat, which cannot be made good in a day, a week, 
or a month. 

The bill passed by the Montgomery Congress, entitled 
*' An act to raise an additional military force to serve during 
the war," is, in fact, a measure to put into the hands of the 
Government the control of irregular bodies of men, and to 
bind them to regular military service. With all their zeal, 
the people of the South will not enlist. They detest the 
recruiting sergeant, and Mr. Davis knows enough of war to 
feel hesitation in trusting himself in the field to volunteers. 
The bill authorizes Mr. Davis to accept volunteers, who 
may offer their services, without regard to the place of en- 
listment, " to serve during the war, unless sooner discharged." 
They may be accepted in companies, but Mr. Davis is to 
organize them into squadrons, battalions, or regiments, and 
the appointment of field and staff officers is reserved es- 
pecially to him. The company officers are to be. elected by 
the men of the company, but here again Mr. Davis reserves 
to himself the right of veto, and will only commission those 
officers whose election he approves. 

The absence of cavalry and the deficiency of artillery may 
prevent either side obtaining any decisive results in one en- 
gagement, but no doubt there will be great loss whenever 
these large masses of men are fairly opposed to each other 
in the field. Of the character of the Northern regiments I 
can say nothing more from actual observation, nor have I 
yet seen in any place such a considerable number of the 
troops of the Confederate States moving together, as would 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 125 

justify me in expressing any opinion with regard to their 
capacity for organized movements such as regular troops in 
Europe are expected to perform. An intelligent and trust- 
worthy observer, taking one of the New York State Militia 
regiments as a fair specimen of the battalions which will 
fight for the United States, gives an account of them which 
leads me to the conclusion that such regiments are much 
superior when furnished by the country districts to those 
raised in the towns and cities. It appears in this case, at 
least, that the members of the regular militia companies in 
general send substitutes to the ranks. Ten of these com- 
panies form the regiment, and in nearly every instance they 
have been doubled in strength by volunteers. Their drill 
is exceedingly incomplete, and in forming the companies 
there is a tendency for the different nationalities to keep 
themselves together. In the regiment in question, the rank 
and file often consists of quarry men, mechanics, and canal 
boatmen, mountaineers from the Catskill, bark peelers and 
timber cutters — ungainly, square-built, powerful fellows, 
with a Dutch tenacity of purpose crossed with an English 
indifi'erence to danger. There is no drunkenness and no 
desertion among them. The officers are almost as ignorant 
of military training as their men. The Colonel, for instance, 
is the son of a rich man in his district, well educated, and a 
man of travel. Another officer is a shipmaster. A third 
is an artist ; others are merchants and lawyers, and they are 
all busy studying " Hardee's Tactics," the best book for 
infantry drill in the United States. The men have come 
out to fight for what they consider the cause of theo cuntry, 
and are said to have no particular hatred of the South or 
of its inhabitants, though they think they are " a darned 
deal too high and mighty, and require to be wiped down 
considerably." They have no notion as to the length of 
time for which their services will be required, and I am 
assured that not one of them has asked what his pay is 
to be. 

Reverting to Montgomery, one may say without offence, 
that its claims to be the capital of a Republic which asserts 
that it is the richest, and believes that it will be the strongest 
in the world, are not by any means evident to a stranger. 
Its central position, which has reference rather to a map 
than to the hard face of matter, procured for it a distinction 
to which it had no other claim. The accommodations which 
suited the modest wants of a State Legislature vanished or 
11* 



$■: 



I'al 



126 THE eiVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

were transmuted into barbarous inconveniences by the pres- 
sure of a central government, with its offices, its depart- 
ments, and the vast crowd of applicants which flocked 
thither to pick up such crumbs of comfort as could be spared 
from the Executive table. Never shall I forget the dismay, 
of myself, and of the friends who were travelling with me, 
on our arrival at the Exchange Hotel, under circumstances 
with some of which you are already acquainted. With us 
were men of high position. Members of Congress, Senators, 
ex-Governors, and General Beauregard himself. But to no. 
one was greater accommodation extended than could be 
furnished by a room held, under a sort of ryot-warree ten- 
ure, in common with a community of strangers. My room 
was shown to me. It contained four large fourpost beds, a 
ricketty table, and some chairs of infirm purpose and funda- 
mental unsoundness. The floor was carpetless, covered 
with litter of paper and ends of cigars, and stained with 
tobacco juice. The broken glass of the window afi'orded 
no ungrateful means of ventilation. One gentleman sat in 
his shirt sleeves at the table reading the account of the 
marshalling of the Highlanders at Edinburgh in the Abbots- 
ford edition of Sir Walter Scott ; another, who had been 
wearied, apparently, by writing numerous applications to 
the Government for some military post, of which rough 
copies lay scattered around, came in, after refreshing himself 
at the bar, and occupied one of the beds, which, by-the-bye, 
were ominously provided with two pillows apiece. Supper 
there was none for us in the house, but a search in an out- 
lying street, enabled us to discover a restaurant, where 
roasted squirrels and baked opossums figured as luxuries in 
the bill of fare. On our return we found that due prepara- 
tion had been made in the apartment by the addition of 
three mattresses on the floor. The beds were occupied by 
unknown statesmen and warriors, and we all slumbered and 
snored in, friendly concert till morning. Gentlemen in the 
South complain that strangers judge jof them by their hotels, 
but it is a very natural standard for strangers to adopt, and 
in respect to Montgomery it is almost the only one that a 
gentleman can conveniently use ; for, if the inhabitants of 
this city and its vicinity are not maligned, there is an absence 
of the hospitable spirit which th« South lays claim to as one 
of its animating principles, and a little bird whispered to 
me that from Mr. Jefi*erson Davis down to the least distin- 
guished member of his Government, there was reason to 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 127 

observe ttat the usual attentions and civilities offered by 
residents to illustrious stragglers had been " conspicuous 
for their absence." The fact is, that the small planters, who 
constitute the majority of the land-owners, are not in a 
position to act the Amphytrion, and that the inhabitants of 
the district can scarcely aspire to be considered what we 
would call gentry in England, but are a frugal, simple, hog 
and hominy-living people, fond of hard work and, occasion- 
ally, of hard drinking. 

New Orleans, May 24, 1861. 
It is impossible to resist the conviction that the Southern 
Cpnfederacy can only be conquered by means as irresistible 
as those by which Poland was subjugated. The South will 
fall, if at all, as a nation prostrate at the feet of a victorious 
enemy. There is no doubt of the unanimity of the people. 
If words mean anything, they are animated by only one 
sentiment, and they will resist the North as long as they 
can command a man or a dollar. There is nothing of a sec- 
tional character in this disposition of the South. In every 
State there is only one voice . audible. Hereafter, indeed, 
State jealousies may work their own way. Whatever may 
be the result, unless the men are the merest braggarts — and 
they do not look like it — they will fight to the last before 
they give in, and their confidence in their resources is only 
equalled by their determination to test them to the utmost. 
There is a noisy vociferation about their declarations of im- 
plicit trust and reliance on their slaves, which makes one 
think they do " protest too much," and it remains to be 
seen whether the slaves really will remain faithful to their 
masters should the Ab jiition army ever come among them 
as an armed propaganda. One thing is obvious here. A 
large number of men who might be usefully employed in 
the ranks are idling abe<ut the streets. The military en- 
thusiasm is in proporticin to the property interest of the 
various clas'ses of the people ; and the very boast that so 
many rich men are serving in the ranks is a significant proof 
either of the want of a substratum, or of the absence of great 
devotion to the cause of any such layer of white people as 
may underlie the great slaveholding, mercantile, and plant- 
ing oligarchy. The whole State of Louisiana contains about 
50,000 men liable to serve when called on. Of that number 
only 15,000 are enrolled and under arms in any shape what- 
ever ; and if one is to judge of the state of affairs by the 
advertisements v/hicli appear from the Adjutant-General's 



ill 



t!^' 



128 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

office, there was some difficulty in procuring the 3,000 men 
— merely 3,000 volunteers — "to serve during the war," 
who are required by the Confederate Government. There 
is plenty of "" prave lords," and if fierce writing and talking 
could do work, the armies on both sides would have been 
killed and eaten long ago. It is found out that " the lives 
of the citizens " at Pensacola are too valuable to be de- 
stroyed in attacking Pickens. A storm that shall drive 
away the ships, a plague, yellow fever, mosquitoes, rattle- 
snakes, small-pox — any of these agencies is looked to with 
confidence to do the work of shot, shell, and bayonet. Our 
American " brethren in arms " have yet to learn that great 
law in American cookery, that " if they want to make ome- 
lets they must break eggs." The " moral suasion " of the 
lasso, of head-shaving, ducking, kicking, and such processes, 
are, I suspect, used not unfrequently to stimulate volun- 
teers ; and the extent to which the acts of the recruiting 
officer are somewhat aided by the arm of the law, and the 
force of the policeman and the magistrate, may be seen from 
paragraphs in the morning papers now and then, to the 
effect that certain gentlemen of Milesian extraction, who 
might have been engaged in pugilistic pursuits, were dis- 
charged from custody, unpunished, on condition that they 
enlisted for the war. With the peculiar views entertained 
of freedom of opinion and action by large classes of people 
on this continent, such a mode of obtaining volunteers is 
very natural, but resort to it evinces a want of zeal on the 
part of some of the 50,000 who are on the rolls ; and, from 
all 1 can hear — and I have asked numerous persons likely 
to be acquainted with the subject — there are not more than" 
«f|t those 15,000 men of whom I have spoken in all the State 

I'i; under arms, or in training, of whom a considerable proportion 

' ' will be needed for garrison and coast defence duties. It may 

be that the Northern States and Northern sentiments are as 
violent as the South, but I see some evidences to the con- 
trary. For instance, in New York ladies and gentlemen 
from the South are permitted to live at their favorite hotels 
without molestation ; and one hotel-keeper at Saratoga 

' , Springs advertises openly for the custom of his Southern 

'jjji'l' patr ;ns. In no city of the South which I have visited 

I wo :ld a party of Northern people be permitted to remain 

1 1 for aa hour if the " citizens " were aware of their presence. 

1 It aughable to hear men speaking of the " unanimity " of 

I th^ .outh. Just look at the peculiar means by which urj«n- 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 129 

imity is enforced and secured. This is an extract from a 
New Orleans paper : 

*' Charges op Abolitionism. — Mayor Monroe has disposed of some 
of the cases brought before him on charges of this kind by sending 
the accused to the workhouse. 

" A Mexican, named Bernard Cruz, born in Tarapico, and living here 
■with an Irish wife, was brought before the Mayor this morning, 
charged with uttering Abolition sentiments. After a full investiga- 
tion, it was found that from the utterance of his incendiary language, 
that Cruz's education was not yet perfect in Southern classics, and his 
Honor therefore directed that he be sent for six months to the Humane 
Institution for the Amelioration of the Condition of Northern Bar- 
barians and Abolition Fanatics, presided over by Professor Henry 
Mitchell, keeper of the workhouse, and who will put him through a 
course of study on Southern ethics and institutions. 

" The testimony before him on Saturday, however, in the case of a 
man named David O'Keefe, was such as to induce him to commit the 
accused for trial before the Criminal Court. One of the witnesses 
testified positively that she heard him make his children shout for Lin- 
coln; another, that the accused said, ' I am an Abolitionist,' &;c. The 
witnesses, neighbors of the accused, gave their evidence reluctantly, 
saying they had warned him of the folly and danger of his conduct. 
O'Keefe says he has been a United States soldier, and came here from 
St. Louis and Kansas. 

" John White was arraigned before Recorder Emerson on Saturday 
for uttering incendiary language while travelling in the baggage car of 
a train of the New Orleans, Ohio and Great Western Railroad, inti- 
mating that the decapitator of Jefferson Davis would get $10,000 for 
his trouble, and the last man of us would be whipped like dogs by 
the Lincolnites. He was held under bonds of $500 to answer the 
charge on the 8th of June. 

" Nicholas Gen to, charged with declaring himself an Abolitionist, 
and acting very much like he was one by harboring a runaway slave, 
was sent to prison, in default of bail, to await an examination before 
the Recorder." 

Such is " freedom of speech " in Louisiana ! But in 
Texas the machinery for the production of " unanimity " is 
less complicated, and there are no insulting legal formalities 
connected with the working of the simple appliances which 
a primitive agricultural people have devised for their own 
purposes. Hear the Texan correspondent of one of the 
journals of this city on the subject. " It is to us astonish- 
ing," he says, 

" That such unmitigated lies as those Northern papers disseminate 
as anarchy and disorder here in Texa , dissension among ourselves, 
and especially from our German, &c., population, with dangers and 
anxieties from the fear of insurrection among the negroes, »V-c., should 
be deemed anywhere South worthy of a moment's thought. It is sure- 
ly notorious enough that in no part of the South are Abolitionists or 
other disturbers of the public peace so very unsafe as in Texas. The 
lasso is so very convenient ! " 



130 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

Here is an excellent method of preventing dissension de- 
scribed by a stroke of the pen ; and, as such, an ingenious peo- 
ple are not likely to lose sight of the uses of a revolution in 
developing peculiar principles to their own advantage, repudi- 
ation of debts to the North has been proclaimed and acted on. 
One gentleman has found it convenient to inform Major 
Anderson that he does not intend to meet certain bills 
which he had given the Major for some slaves. Another 
declares he won't pay anybody at all, as he has discovered 
it is immoral and contrary to the laws of nations to do so. 
A third feels himself bound to obey the commands of the 
Governor of his State, who has ordered that debts due to 
the North shall not be liquidated. As a naive specimen 
of the way in which the whole case is treated, take this art- 
icle and the correspondence of " one of the most prominent 
mercantile houses of New Orleans : " 

SOUTHERN DEBTS TO THE NORTH. 

" The Cincinnati Gazette copies the following paragraph from 77ie 
JSTew York Evening Post : 

" ' Bad Faith. — The bad faith of the Southern merchants in their 
transactions with their Northern correspondents is becoming more 
evident daily. We have heard of several recent cases where parties 
in this city, retired from active business, have, nevertheless, stepped 
forward to protect the credit of their Southern friends. They are now 
coolly informed that they cannot be reimbursed for these advances 
until the war is over. We know of a retired merchant who in this 
way has lost $100,000.' — and adds : 

" ' The same here. Men who have done most for the South are the 
chief suiferers. Debts are coolly repudiated by the Southern mer- 
chants, who have heretofore enjoyed a first-class reputation. Men 
who have grown rich upon the trade furnished by the West are among 
the first to pocket the money of their correspondents, asking, with all 
the impudence and assurance of a highwayman, " What are you going 
to do about it? " There is honor among thieves, it is said, but there is 
not a spark of honor among these repudiating merchants. People who 
have aided and trusted them to the last moment are the greatest 
losers. There is a future, however. This war will be over, and the 
Southern merchants will desire a resumption of their connections with 
the West. As the repudiators — such as Goodrich & Co. of New 
Orleans — will be spurned, there will be a grand opening for honest 
men. 

" * There are many honorable exceptions in the South, but dishon- 
esty is the rule. The latter is but the development of latent rascality. 
The rebellion has afibrded a pretext merely for tlie swindling opera- 
tions. The parties previously ac*^ed honestly, only because that was 
the best policy. The sifting process that may now be conducted will 
be of advantage to Northern merchants in the future. The present 
losses will be fully made up by subsequent gains.' 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 131 

*' We have been requested to copy the following reply to this tirade 
from one of our most prominent mercantile houses, Messrs. Goodrich 
& Co.: 

** * New Orleans, May 24, 1 61. 

*^ '^ Cincinnati Gazette. — We were handed, through a friend of 
ours, your issue of the 18th inst., and attention directed to an article 
contained therein, in which you are pleased to particularize us out of 
a large number of highly respectable merchants of this and other 
Southern cities as repudiators, swindltrs, and other epithets, better 
suited to the mouths of the Wilson Regiment of New York than from 
a once respectable sheet, but now has sunk so low in the depths of 
niggerdom, that it would take all the soap in Porkopolis and the Ohio 
River to cleanse it from its foul pollution. 

" ' We are greatly indebted to you for using our name in the above 
article, as we deem it the best card you could publish for us, and may 
add greatly to our business relations in the Confederate States, which 
will enable us in the end to pay our indebtedness to those who propose 
cutting our throats, destroying our property, stealing our negroes, and 
starving our wives and children, to pay such men in times of war. You 
may term it rascality, but we beg leave to call it patriotism. 

" ' Giving the sinews of war to your enemies have ever been consid- 
ered as treason. — Kent. 

" Now for 'repudiating.' We have never, nor do we ever expect to 
repudiate any debt owing by our firm. But this much we will say, 
never will we pay a debt due by us to a man, or any company of men, 
who is a known Black Republican, and marching in battle array to 
invade our homes and firesides, until every such person shall be driven 
back, and their polluted footsteps shall, now on our once happy soil, 
be entirely obliterated. 

*' ' We have been in business in this city for twenty years, have 
passed through every crisis with our names untarnished or credit im- 
paired, and would at present sacrifice all we have made, were it neces- 
sary, to sustain our credit in the Confederacy, but care nothing for 
the opinions of such as are open and avowed enemies. We are suffi- 
ciently known in this city not to require the indorsement of The Cin- 
cinnati Gazette, or any such sheet, for a character. 

" ' The day is coming, and not far distant, when there will be an 
awful reckoning, and we are willing and determined to stand by our 
Confederate flag, sink or swim, and would like to meet some of The 
Gazette^s editors vis-ci-vis on the field of blood, and see who would be 
the first to flinch. 

" ' Our senior partner has already contributed one darkey this year 
to your population, and she is anxious" to return, but we have a few 
more left which you can have, provided you will come and take them 
yourselves. 

* * ' We have said more than we intended, and hope you will give 
this a place in your paper. GOODRICH & Co.'" 

There is some little soreness felt here about the use of the 
word " repudiation," and it will do the hearts of some peo- 
ple good, and will carry comfort to the ghost of the Rev. 
Sydney Smith, if it can hear the tidings, to know I have 



132 THE CIVIL WAH IN AMERICA. 

been assured, over and over again, by eminent mercantile 
people and statesmen, that there is " a general desire " on 
the part of the repudiating States to pay their bonds, and 
that no doubt, at some future period, not very clearly ascer- 
tainable or plainly indicated, that general desire will cause 
some active steps to be taken to satisfy its intensity, of a 
character very unexpected, and very gratifying to those in- 
terested. The tariff of the Southern Confederation has just 
been promulgated, and I send herewith a copy of the rates. 
Simultaneously, however, with this document, the United 
States steam frigates Brooklyn and Niagara have made their 
appearance off the Pas-a-l' Outre, and the Mississippi is 
closed, and with it the port of New Orleans. The steam- 
tugs refuse to tow out vessels for fear of capture, and British 
ships are in jeopardy. 

May 25. — A visit to the camp at Tangipao, about fifty 
miles from New Orleans, gave an occasion for obtaining a 
clearer view of the internal military condition of those forces 
of which one reads much, and sees so little, than any other 
way. Major-General Lewis of the State Militia, and staff, 
and General Labuzan, a Creole officer, attended by Major 
Ranney, President of the New-Orleans, Jackson, and 
Great Northern Railway, and by many officers in uniform, 
started with that purpose at 4:30 this evening in a rail- 
carriage, carefully and comfortably fitted for their reception. 
The militia of Louisiana has -not been called out for many 
years, and its officers have no military experience, and the 
men have no drill or discipline. 

Emerging from the swampy suburbs, we soon pass be- 
tween white clover pastures, which we are told invariably 
salivate the herds of small but plump cattle browsing upon 
them. Soon cornfields " in tassel," alternate with long 
narrow rows of growing sugar-cane, which, though scarce- 
ly a fourth of the height of the maize, will soon over- 
shadow it ; and the cane-stalks grow up so densely to- 
gether that nothing larger than a rattle-snake can pass 
between them. 

From Kennersville, an ancient sugar plantation cut up 
into " town lots," our first halt, ten miles out, we shoot 
through a cypress swamp, the primitive forest of this region, 
and note a greater affluence of Spanish moss than in the 
woods of Georgia or Carolina. There it hung, like a her- 
mit's beard, from the pensile branch. Here, to one who 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 133 

should venture to thread the snake and alligator haunted 
mazes of the jungle, its matted profusion must resemble 
clusters of stalactites pendent from the roof of some 
vast cavern ; for the gloom of an endless night appears to 
pervade the deeper recesses, at the entrance of which stand, 
tike outlying skeleton pickets, the unfelled and leafless pa- 
triarchs of the clearing, that for a breadth of perhaps fifty- 
yards on either side seems to have furnished the road with 
its sleepers. 

The gray swamp yields to an open savannah, beyond 
which, upon the left, a straggling line of sparse trees skirts 
the left bank of the Mississippi, and soon after the broad 
expanse of Lake Pontchartrain appears within gunshot of 
our right, only separated from the road by one hundred 
yards or more of rush-covered prairie, which seems but a 
feeble barrier against the caprices of so extensive a sheet of 
water subject to the influences of wind and tide. In fact, 
ruined shanties and outhouses, fields laid waste, and pros- 
trate fences remain evidences of the ravages of the " Wash " 
which a year ago inundated and rendered the railroad im- 
passable save for boats. The down trains first notice of the 
disaster was the presence of a two-story frame building, 
which the waves had transported to the road, and its pas- 
sengers, detained a couple of days in what now strikes us 
as a most grateful combination of timber-skirted meadow 
and lake scenery, were rendered insensible to its beauties 
by the torments of hungry mosquitoes. Had its engineers 
given the road but eighteen inches more elevation its pat- 
rons would have been spared this suflering, and its stock- 
holders might have rejoiced in a dividend. Many of the 
settlers have abandoned their improvements. Others, 
chiefly what are here called Dutchmen, have resumed 
their tillage with unabated zeal, and large fields of cab- 
bages, one of them embracing not less than sixty acres, 
testify to their energy. 

Again through miles of cypress swamps the train passes 
on to what is called the " trembling prairie," where the 
sleepers are laid upon a tressel-work of heavier logs, so that 
the rails are raised by " cribs " of timber nearly a yard 
above the morass. Three species of rail, one of them as 
large as a curlew, and the summer duck, seem the chief oc- 
cupants of the marsh, but white cranes and brown bitterns 
take the alarm, and falcons and long- tailed " blackbirds " 
sail in the distance. 
12 



134 THE CIYIIi WAR IN AMEHICA. 

Toward sunset a halt took place upon the long bridge 
that divides Lake Maurepas, a picturesque sheet of water 
which blends with the horizon on our left, from Pass Maun- 
shae, an arm of Lake Pontchartrain, which disappears in 
the forest on our right. Half a dozen wherries and a small 
fishing-smack are moored in front of a rickety cabin, crowd- 
ed by the jungle to the margin of the cove. It is the first 
token of a settlement that has occurred for miles, and when 
we have sufficiently admired the scene, rendered picturesque 
in the sunset by the dense copse, the water and the bright 
colors of the boats at rest upon it, a commotion at the head 
of the train arises from the unexpected arrival upon the 
" switch" of a long string of cars filled with half a regi- 
ment of Volunteers, who had been enlisted for twelve 
months' service, and now refused to be mustered in for 
the war, as required by the recent enactm^it of the Mont- 
gomery Congress. The new comers are at length safely 
lodged on the " turn off"," and our train continues its jour- 
ney. As we pass the row of cars, most of them freight 
wagons, we are hailed with shouts and yells in every 
key by the disbanded Volunteers, who seem a youngish, 
poorly- clad, and undersized lot, though noisy as a street 
mob. 

After Maunshae, the road begins to creep up toward ierra 

Jirma, and before nightfall there was a change from cypresses 

and swamp laurels to pines and beeches, and we inhale the 

purer atmosphere of dry land, with an occasional whiff" of 

resinous fragrance, that dispels the fever- tainted suggestions 

of the swamp below. There we only breathed to live. 

Here we seem to live to breathe. The rise of the road is 

, a grade of but a foot to the mile, and yet at the camp an 

,|i| elevation of not more than eighty feet in as many miles 

'" suffices to establish all the climatic difference between the 

malarious marshes and a much higher mountain region. 

But during our journey the hampers have not been ne- 
glected. The younger members of the party astonish the 
night-owls with patriotic songs, chiefly French, and the 
French chiefly with the " Marseillaise," which, however 
inappropriate as the slogan of the Confederate States, they 
persist in quavering, forgetful, perhaps, that not three-quar- 
ters of a century ago Toussaiant I'Ouverture caught the 
words and air from his masters, and awoke the lugubrious 
notes of the insurrection. 

Towards nine P. M., the special car rests in the woods, 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 135 

and is flanked on one side by the tents and watcTi-fires of a 
small encampment, cliiefly of navvy and cotton-handling 
Milesian volunteers, called " the Tigers," from their pre- 
hensile powers and predatory habits. A guard is stationed 
around the car ; a couple of Ethiopians who have attended 
us from town are left to answer the query, quis custodiet 
ipsos custodes ? and we make our way to the hotel, which 
looms up in the moonlight in a two-storied dignity. Here, 
alas ! there have been no preparations made to sleep or feed 
us. The scapegoat " nobody " announced our coming. 
Some of the guests are club men, used to the small hours, 
who engage a room, a table, half a dozen chairs, and a brace 
of bottles to serve as candlesticks. They have brought 
stearine and pasteboards with them, and are soon deep in 
the finesses of " Euchre." We quietly stroll back to the 
car, our only hope of shelter. At the entrance we are 
challenged by a sentry, apparently ignorant that he has a 
percussion cap on his brown rifle, which he levels at us 
cocked. From this unpleasant vision of an armed and reck- 
less Tiger rampant we are relieved by one of the dusky 
squires, who assures the sentinel that we are " all right," 
and proceeds to turn over a seat and arrange what might be 
called a sedan-chair bed, in which we prepare to make a 
night of it. Our party is soon joined by others in quest of 
repose, and in half an hour breathings, some of them so 
deep as to seem subterranean, indicate that all have attained 
their object — like Manfred's — forgetfulness. 

An early breakfast of rashers and eggs was prepared at 
the table d'hote, which we were told would be replenished 
half-hourly until noon, when a respite of an hour was allow- 
ed to the " help " in which to make ready a dinner, to be 
served in the same progression. 

Through a shady dingle a winding path led to the camp, 
and, after trudging a pleasant half mite, a bridge of boards, 
resting on a couple of trees laid across a pool, was passed, 
and, above a slight embankment, tents and soldiers are re- 
vealed upon a " clearing" of some thirty acres in the midst 
of a pine forest. Turning to the left, we reach a double 
row of tents, only distinguished from the rest by their " fly 
roofs " and boarded floors, and, in the centre, halt opposite 
to one which a poster of capitals on a planed deal marks as 
" Head-quarters." Major-General Tracy commands the 
camp. The white tents crouching close to the shade of the 
pines, the parade alive with groups and colors as various as 



136 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

tkose of Joseph's coat, arms stacked here and there, and 
occasionally the march of a double file in green, or in maz- 
arine blue, up an alley from the interior of the wood, to be 
dismissed in the open camp, resembles a. militia muster, or a 
holiday experiment at soldiering, rather than the dark shadow 
of forthcoming battle. The cordon of sentinels suffer no 
Volunteer to leave the precincts of the camp, even to bathe, 
without a pass or the word. There are neither wagons 
nor ambulances, and the men are rolling in barrels of 
bacon and bread and shouldering bags of pulse — good 
picnic practice and campaigning gymnastics in fair weather. 

The arms of these Volunteers are the old United States 
smooth-bore musket, altered from flint to percussion, with 
bayonet — a heavy and obsolete copy of Brown Bess in 
bright barrels. All are in creditable order. Most of them 
have never been used, even to fire a parade volley, for pow- 
der is scarce in the Confederated States, and must not be 
wasted. Except in their material, the shoes of the troops 
are as varied as their clothing. None have as yet been served 
out, and each still wears the boots, the brogans, the patent 
leathers, or the Oxford ties in which he enlisted. The tents 
have mostly no other floor than the earth, and that rarely 
swept ; while blankets, boxes, and utensils are stowed in 
corners with a disregard of symmetry that would drive a 
martinet mad. Camp stools are rare and tables invisible, 
save here and there in an officer's tent. Still the men look 
well, and, we are told, would doubtless present a more 
cheerful appearance, but for some little demoralization oc- 
casioned by discontent at the repeated changes in the organic 
structure of the regiments, arising from misapprehensions 
between the State and Federal authorities, as well as from 
some favoritism toward certain officers, effected by political 
wire-pulling in the governing councils. The system of 
electing officers by ballot has made the camp as thoroughly 
a political arena as the poll districts in New Orleans before 
an election, and thus many heroes, seemingly ambitious of 
epaulettes, are in reality only " laying pipes " for the attain- 
ment of civil power or distinction after the war. 

The volunteers we met at Maunshae the previous evening 
had been enlisted by the State to serve for twelve months, 
and had refused to extend their engagenient for the war — 
a condition now made precedent at Montgomery to their 
being mustered into the army of the Confederate States. 
Another company, a majority of whom persist in the same 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 137 

refusal, were disbanded while we were patrolling tlie camp, 
and an officer told one of tlie party he had suffered a loss of 
six hundred volunteers by this disintegrating process within 
the last twenty-four hours. Some of these country com- 
panies were skilled in the use of the rifle, and most of them 
had made pecuniary sacrifices in the way of time, journeys, 
and equipments. Our informant deplored this reduction of 
volunteers, as tending to engender dissaffection in the par- 
ishes to which they will return, and comfort when known to 
the Abolitionists of the North. He added that the war will 
not perhaps last a twelvemonth, and if unhappily prolonged 
beyond that period, the probabilities are in favor of the 
short-term recruits willingly consenting to a reenlistment. 

The encampment of the "Perrit Guards" was worthy of 
a visit. Here was a company of professional gamblers, one 
hundred and twelve strong, recruited for the war in a moment 
of banter by one of the patriarchs of the fraternity, who, 
upon hearing at the St. Charles Hotel one evening, that the 
vanity or the patriotism of a citizen, not famed for liberality, 
had endowed with $1,000 a company which was to bear his 
name, exclaimed that "he would give $1,500 to any one 
who should be fool enough to form a company and call it 
after him." In less than an hour after the utterance of this 
caprice, Mr. Perrit was waited upon by fifty-six '* profes- 
sionals," who had enrolled their names as the "Perrit 
Guards," and unhesitatingly produced from his wallet the 
sum so sportively pledged. The Guards are uniformed in 
Mazarin blue flannel with red facings, and the captain, a 
youngish-looking fellow, with a hawk's eye, who has seen 
service with Scott in Mexico and Walker in Nicaragua, 
informed us that there is not a pair of shoes in the company 
that cost less than six dollars, and that no money has been 
spared to perfect their other appointments. A sack of ice 
and half a dozen silver goblets enforced his invitation " to 
take a drink at his quarters," and we were served by an 
African in uniform, who afterward offered us cigars received 
by the last Havana steamer. Looking at the sable attend- 
ant, one of the party observes that if these " experts of 
fortune win the present fight, it will be a case of couleur 
gagne:' 

It would be difficult to find in the same number of men 

taken at hazard greater diversities of age, stature, and 

physiognomy ; but in keenness of eye and imperturbility 

of demeanor they exhibit a family likeness, and there is not 

12* 



138 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

an unintelligent face in the company. The gamblers, or, as 
they are termed, the " sports," of the United States have an 
air of higher breeding and education than the dice-throwers 
and card-turners of Ascot or Newmarket — nay, they may be 
considered the Anglo-Saxon equals, minus the title, of those 
dmes damnees of the continental nobility who are styled 
Greeks by their Parisian victims. They are the Pariahs of 
American civilization, who are, nevertheless, in daily and 
familiar intercourse with their patrons, and not restricted, as 
in England, to a betting-ring toleration by the higher orders. 
The Guards are the model company of Camp Moore, and I 
should have felt disposed to admire the spirit of gallantry 
with which they have volunteered in this war as a purifica- 
tion by fire of their maculated lives, were it not hinted that 
the "Oglethorpe Guards," and more than one other company 
of volunteers, are youths of large private fortunes, and that 
in the Secession, as in the Mexican War, these patriots will 
doubtless pursue their old calling with as much profit as 
they may their new one with valor. 

From the Lower Camp we wind through tents, which 
diminish in neatness and cleanliness as we advance deeper, 
to the Upper Division, which is styled " Camp Tracy," a 
newer formation, whose brooms have been employed with 
corresponding success. The adjutant's report for the day 
sums up one thousand and seventy -three rank and file, and 
but two on the sick list. On a platform, a desk beneath 
the shade of the grove holds a Bible and Prayer-book, that 
await the arrival at ten o'clock of the Methodist preacher, 
who is to perform Divine service. The green uniforms of 
the " Hibernian Guards," and the gray and light blue dress 
of other companies, appertain to a better appointed sort of 
men than the Lower Division. 

There may be two thousand men in Camp Moore — not 
more, and yet every authority gives us a difierent figure. 
The lowest estimate acknowledged for the two camps is 
three thousand five hundred men, and The Picayune and 
other New Orleans papers still speak in glowing terms of 
the five thousand heroes assembled in Tangipao. Although 
the muster there presents a tolerable show of ball-stoppers, 
it would require months of discipline to enable them to pass 
for soldiers even at the North ; and besides that General 
Tracy has never had other experience than in militia duty, 
there is not, I think, a single West Point ofiicer in his 
whole command. The only hope of shaping such raw ma- 



THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 139 

terial to the purposes of war, would naturally be by the 
admixture of a proper allowance of military experience, and 
until those possessing it shall be awarded to Camp Moore, 
we must sigh over the delusion which pictures its denizens 
to the good people of New Orleans as " fellows ready for 
the fray." 

While the hampers are being ransacked an express loco- 
motive arrives from town with despatches for General Tracy, 
who exclaims when reading them, "Always too late !" from 
which expression it is inferred that orders have been received 
to accept the just-disbanded volunteers. The locomotive 
was hitched to the car and drew it back to the city. Our 
car was built in Massachusetts, the engine in Philadelphia, 
and the magnifier of its lamp in Cincinnati. What will the 
South do for such articles in future ? 

May 26. — In the evening, as I was sitting in the house 
of a gentlemaji in the city, it was related as a topic of con- 
versation that a very respectable citizen named Bibb had had 
a difficulty with three gentlemen, who insisted on his read- 
ing out the news for them from his paper as he went to 
market in the early morning. Mr. Bibb had a revolver 
" casually " in his pocket, and he shot one citizen dead on 
the spot, and wounded the other two severely, if not mor- 
tally. " Great sympathy," I am told, " is felt for Mr. Bibb." 
There has been a skirmish somewhere on the Potomac, but 
Bibb has done more business " on his own hook " than any 
of the belligerents up to this date ; and, though I can scarcely 
say I sympathize with him, far be it from me to say that I do 
not respect him. • 

One curious result of the civil war in its effects on the 
South will, probably, extend itself as the conflict continues 
— I mean the refusal of the employers to pay their workmen, 
on the ground of inability. The natural consequence is much 
distress vand misery. The English Consul is harassed by 
applications for assistance from mechanics and skilled labor- 
ers who are in a state bordering on destitution and starva- 
tion. They desire nothing better than to leave the country 
and return to their homes. All business, except tailoring for 
soldiering and cognate labors, are suspended. Money is not 
to be had. Bills on New York are worth little more than 
the paper, and the exchange against London is enormous — 
18 per cent, discount from the par value of the gold in bank, 
good draughts on England having been negotiated yesterday 



140 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 

at 92 per cent. One house lias been compelled to accept 4 
per cent, on a draught on the North, where the rate was 
usually from ^ per cent, to ^ per cent. There is some fear 
that the police force will be completely broken up, and the 
imagination refuses to guess at the result. The city schools 
will probably be closed — altogether, things do not look well 
at New Orleans. When all their present difficulties are over, 
a struggle between the mob and the oligarchy, or those who 
have no property and those who have, is inevitable ; for one 
of the first acts of the Legislature will probably be directed 
to establish some sort of qualification for the right of suf- 
frage, relying on the force which will be at their disposal on 
the close of the war. As at New York, so at New Orleans. 
Universal suffrage is denounced as a curse, as corruption 
legalized, confiscation organized. As I sat in a well-fur- 
nished club-room last night, listening to a most respectable, 
well-educated, intelligent gentleman descanting on the prac- 
tices of " the Thugs " — an organized band \vho coolly and 
deliberately committed murder for the purpose of intimida- 
ting Irish and German voters, and were only put down by a 
Vigilance Committee, of which he was a member — I had 
almost to pinch myself to see that I was not the victim of a 
horrid nightmare. 

Monday, May 27. — The Washington Artillery went off 
to-day to the wars — quo fas et gloria ducunt ; but I saw a 
good many of them in the streets after the body had de- 
parted — spirits who were disembodied. Their uniform is 
very becoming, not unlike that of our own foot artillery, 
and they have one bdltery of guns in good order. I looked 
in vain for any account of Mr. Bibb's little affair yesterday 
in the papers. Perhaps, as he is so very respectable, there 
will not be any reference to it at all. Indeed, in some con- 
versation on the subject last night it was admitted that 
when men were very rich they might find judges and jury- 
men as tender as Danae, and policeman as permeable as the 
lijitt walls of her dungeon. The whole question now is, " What 

'ipj will be done with the blockade?" The Confederate 

authorities are acting with a high hand. An American 
vessel, the Ariel, which had cleared out of port with British 
subjects on boatd, has been overtaken, captured, and her 
crew have been put in prison. The ground is that she is 
owned in main by Black Republicans. The British sub- 
jects have received protection from the Consul. Prizes 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 141 

have been made within a league of shore, and in one in- 
stance, when the captain protested, his ship was taken out 
to sea, and was then re-captured formally. I went round 
to several merchants to-day ; they were all gloomy and 
fierce. In fact, the blockade of Mobile is announced, and 
that of New Orleans has commenced, and men-of-war have 
been reported off the Pas-a-l'Outre. The South is beginning 
to feel that it is being bottled up all fermenting and froth- 
ing, and is somewhat surprised and angry at the natural 
results of its own acts, or, at least, of the proceedings which 
have brought about a state of war. Mr. Slidell did not 
seem at all contented with the telegrams from the North, 
and confessed that " if they had been received by way of 
Montgomery he should be alarmed." The names of per- 
sons liable for military service have been taken down in 
several districts, and British subjects have been included. 
Several applications have been made to Mr. Mure, the Con- 
sul, to interfere in behalf of men who, having enlisted, are 
now under orders to march, and who must leave their 
families destitute. if they go away; but he has, of course, 
no power to exercise any influence in such cases. The 
English journals to the 4th of May have arrived here to- 
day. It is curious to see how quaint in their absurdity the 
telegrams become when they have reached the age of three 
weeks. I am in the hapless position of knowing, without 
being able to remedy, the evils from this source, for there 
is no means of sending through to New York political- in- 
formation of any sort by telegraph. . The electric fluid may 
be the means of blasting and blighting many reputations, 
as there can be no doubt the revelations which the Govern- 
ment at Washington will be able to obtain through the files 
of the despatches it has seized at the various ofiices, will 
compromise some whose views have recently undergone 
remarkable changes. It is a hint which may not be lost on 
Governments in Europe when it is desirable to know friends 
and foes hereafter, and despotic rulers will not be slow to 
take a hiht from " the land of liberty." 

Orders have been issued by the Governor to the tow- 
boats to take out the English vessels by the southwest 
passage, and it is -probable they will all get through with- 
out any interruption on the part of the blockading force. 
It may be imagined that the owners and consignees of 
cargoes from England, China, and India, which are on 
their way here, are not at all easy in their minds. Two of 



142 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

the Washington Artillery died in the train on their way to 
that undefinable region called " the seat of war." 

May 28. — The Southern States have already received 
the assistance of several thousands of savages, or red men, 
and " the warriors " are actually engaged in pursuing the 
United States troops in Texas in conjunction with the State 
Volunteers. A few days ago a deputation of the chiefs of 
the Five Nations, Creeks, Choctaws, Seminoles, Camanches, 
and others passed through New Orleans on their way to 
Montgomery, where they hoped to enter into terms with 
the Government for the transfer of their pension list and 
other responsibilities from Washington, and to make such 
arrangements for their property and their rights as would 
justify them in committing their fortunes to the issue of war. 
These tribes can turn out twenty thousand warriors, scalp- 
ing-knives, tomahawks, and all. The chiefs and principal 
men are all slaveholders. 

May 29. — A new "affair" occurred this afternoon. 
The servants of the house in which I am staying were 
alarmed by violent screams in a house in the adjoining 
street, and by the discharge of firearms — an occurrence 
which, like the cry of " murder " in the streets of Havana, 
clears the streets of all wayfarers if they be wise, and do 
not wish to stop stray bullets. The cause is thus stated in 
the j ournals : 

"Sad Family Affray. — Last evening, at the resi- 
dence of Mr. A. P. Withers, in Nayades street, near Thalia, 
Mr. Withers shot and dangerously wounded his step-son, 
Mr. A. F. W. Mather. As the police tell it, the nature of 
the affair was this : The two men were in the parlor, and 
talking about the Washington Artillery, which left on 
Monday for Virginia. Mather denounced the artillerists in 
strong language, and his step-father denied what he said. 
Violent language followed, and, as . Withers says, Mather 
drew a pistol and shot at him once, not hitting him. He 
snatched up a Sharp's revolver that was lying near and fired 
four times at his step-son. The latter fell at the third fire, 
and as he was falling Withers fired a fourth time, the bullet 
wounding the hand of Mrs. Withers, wife of one and mother 
of the other, she having rushed in to interfere, and she 
being the only witness of the affair. Withers immediately 
went out into the street and voluntarily surrendered him- 
self to officer Casson, the first officer he met. He was 



THE Civil, WAR IN AMERICA. 143 

locked up. Three of his shots hit Mather, two of them in 
the breast. Last night Mather was not expected to live." 

Another difficulty is connected with the free colored 
people who may be found in prize ships. Read and judge 
of the conclusion : 

" What shall be done with them ? — On the 28th inst., Capt. 0. W. 
Gregor, of the privateer Calhoun, brought to the station of this dis- 
trict about ten negro sailors, claiming to be free, found on board of 
the brigs Panama, John Adams, and Mermaid. 

" The Recorder sent word to the Marshal of the Confederate States 
that said negroes were at his disposition. The Marshal refused to 
receive them or have anything to do with them, whereupon the Re- 
corder gave the following decision : 

" ' Though I have no authority to act in this case, I think it is my 
duty as a magistrate and good citizen to take upon myself, in this 
critical moment, the responsibilityof keeping the prisoners in custody, 
firmly believing it would not only be bad policy, but a dangerous one, 
to let them loose upon the community.' 

" The following despatch was sent by the Recorder to the Hon. J. 
P. Benjamin : 

" 'New Orleai^s, May 23. 

*' * To J. P. Benjamin, Richmond — Sir : Ten free negroes, taken 
by a privateer from on board three vessels returning to Boston , from 
a whaling voyage, have been delivered to me. The Marshal refuses 
to take charge of them. What shall I do with them ? 

'Respectfully, A. BLACHE, 

'Recorder, Second District.' " 

The monthly statement I enclose of the condition of the 
New Orleans banks on the 25th inst., must be regarded as 
a more satisfactory exhibit to their depositors and share- 
holders, though of no greater benefit to the commercial com- 
munity in this its hour of need than the tempting show of a 
pastrycook's window to the famished street poor. These 
institutions show assets estimated at $54,000,000, of which 
$20,000,000 are in specie and sterling exchange, to meet 
$25,000,000 of liabilities, or more than two for one. But, 
with this apparent amplitude of resources, the New Orleans 
banks are at a deadlock, affording no discounts and buying 
no exchange — the latter usually their greatest source of 
profit in a mart" which ships so largely of cotton, sugar, and 
flour, and the commercial movement of which for not over 
nine months of the year is the second in magnitude among 
the cities of the old Union. 

As an instance of the caution of their proceedings, I have 
only to state that a gentleman of wealth and the highest 
respectability, who needed a day or two since some money 
for the expenses of an unexpected journey, was compelled, 
in order to borrow of these banks the sum of $1,500, to 



144 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEBICA. 

hypothecate, as security for his bill at 60 days, $10,000 of 
bonds of the Confederate States, and for which a month ago 
he paid par in coin — a circumstance which reflects more 
credit upon the prudence of the banks than upon the security 
pledged for this loan. 

MOVEMENTS OF THE BANKS, MAY 26, 1861. 

CASH RESPONSIBILITIES. 

Circulation — Chartered Banks, . . $5,323,376 

Circulation — Free Banks, . . , . 1,798,835 

#7,122,211 

Deposits — Chartered Banks, . . . #12,979,307 

Deposits — Free Banks, .... 4,929,544 

#17,908,851 

Total, #25,031,062 

CASH ASSETS. 

Coin— Chartered Banks, -. . . #10,808,812 

Coin — Free Banks, 4,183,722 

#14,992,534 

Exchange, chiefly sterling matured and matur- 
ing : 

Chartered Banks, . . . #4,481,140 
Free Banks, 1,083,928 

#5,565,068 

Total, #20,557,602 

Short commercial paper, 1 to 90 days, in- 
tended to meet cash responsibilities, and 
j not renewable : 

I Chartered Banks, . . . #7,235,077 

Free Banks, 4,670,979 

-#11,906,056 

Total, #32,463,658 

Circulation of the Free Banks, secured by a 
deposit in the public Treasury, of State 
and New Orleans City Bonds, to the amount 

of, #3,793,873 

The Chartered Banks hold of the same secu- 
rities, 1,747,467 

. #5,541,340 

DEAD WEIGHT. 

Chartered Banks — bills and mortgaged bonds 

and other assets, not realizable in 90 days, #14,140,925 

Free Banks — bills and mortgaged bonds and 

other assets, not realizable in 90 days, 2,606,249 

#16,747,174 

Total, ....... #54,752,172 

Remarks : 

Amount of coin, as above, #14,993,531 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 145 

Amount of coin required by the Fundamental Bank 
Kules of Louisiana — one-third of the cash respon- 
sibilities, say, on $25,031,062, as above, . . . $8,343,137 



Surplus, $6,648,847 



Amount of short notes maturing within a circle of 90 

days, and exchange, as above, .... $17,471,124 

Amount required to be held by the Fundamental Bank 

Rules — at least two-thirds, .... $16,687,378 



Surplus, $783,771 



LETTER XIII. 

Natchez, Miss., June 14. 

On the morning of the 3d of June, I left New Orleans in 
one of the steamers proceeding up the Mississippi, along 
that fertile but uninteresting region of reclaimed swamp 
lands called "the Coast," which extends along both banks 
for one hundred and twenty miles above the city. It is so 
called from the name given to it, " La Cote," by the early 
French settlers. Here is the favored land — alas ! it is a 
fever-land too — of sugar-cane and Indian corn. To those 
who have very magnificent conceptions of the Mississippi, 
founded on mere arithmetical computations of leagues, or 
vague geographical data, it may be astonishing, but it is nev- 
ertheless true, the Mississippi is artificial for many hundreds 
of miles. Nature has, of course, poured out the waters, but 
man has made the banks. By a vast system of raised em- 
bankments, called levees, the river is constrained to abstain 
from overflowing the swamps, now drained and green with 
wealth- producing crops. At the present moment the sur- 
face of the river is several feet higher than the land at each 
side, and the steamer moves on a level with the upper sto- 
ries, or even the roofs of the houses, reminding one of such 
scenery as could be witnessed in the old days of treckshuyt 
in Holland. The river is not broader than the Thames at 
Gravesend, and is quite as richly colored. But then it is 
one hundred and eighty feet deep, and for hundreds of miles 
it has not less than one hundred feet of water. Thus deeply 
13 



146 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 



has it scooped out the rich clay and marl in its course, but 
as it flows out to join the sea it throws down the vast pre- 
cipitates which render the bars so shifting and difficult, and 
bring the mighty river to such a poor exit. A few miles 
above the wharves and large levees of the city the country 
really appears to be a sea of light green, with shores of forest 
in the distance, about two miles away from the bank. This 
forest is the uncleared land, extending for a considerable 
way back, which each planter hopes to take into culture one 
day or other, and which he now uses to provide timber for 
his farm. Near the banks are houses of wood, with porti- 
coes, pillars, verandahs, and sun-shades, generally painted 
white and green. There is a great uniformity of style, but 
the idea aimed at seems to be that of the old French 
chateau, witl\ the addition of a colonnade round the ground 
story. These dwellings are generally in the midst of small 
gardens, rich in semi-tropical vegetation, with glorious mag- 
nolias, now in full bloom, rising in their midst, and groves 
of live-oak interspersed. The levee is as hard and dry as 
the bank of a canal. Here and there it is propped up by 
wooden revelments. Between it and the uniform line of 
palings which guards the river face of the plantations there 
is a carriage-road. In the enclosure near each residence 
there is a row of small wooden huts, whitewashed, in which 
live the negroes attached to the service of the family. Out- 
side the negroes who labor in the fields are quartered in 
similar constructions, which are like the small single huts, 
called " Maltese," which were plentiful in the Crimea. 
They are rarely furnished with windows ; a wooden slide or 
a grated space admits such light and air as they want. -One 
of the most striking features of the landscape is its utter 
want of life. There were a few horsemen exercising in a 
field, some gigs and buggies along the levee roads, and little 
groups at the numerous landing-places, generally containing 
a few children in tom-fool costumes, as Zouaves, Chasseurs, 
or some sort of infantry, but the slaves who were there had 
come down to look after luggage or their masters. There 
were no merry, laughing, chattering gatherings of black 
faces and white teeth, such as we hear about. Indeed, the 
negroes are not allowed hereabouts to stir out of their re- 
spective plantations, or to go along the road without passes 
from their owners. The steamer J. L. Cotten, which was 
not the less popular, perhaps, because she had the Avords 
"Low pressure " conspicuous on her paddle-boxes, carried 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 147 

a fair load of passengers, most of wliom were members of 
Creole families living on the coast. The proper meaning of 
the word " Creole " is very different from that which we 
attach to it. It signifies a person of Spanish or French de- 
scent born in Louisiana or in the Southern and tropical 
countries. The great majority of the planters here are 
French Creoles, and it is said they are kinder and better 
masters than Americans or Scotch, the latter being consid- 
ered the most severe. Intelligent on most subjects, they 
are resolute in the belief that England must take their cot- 
ton or perish. Even the keenest of their financiers, Mr. 
Forstall, an Irish Creole, who is representative of the house 
of Baring, seems inclined to this faith, though he is prepared 
with many ingenious propositions, which would rejoice Mr. 
Gladstone's inmost heart, to raise money for the Southern 
Confederacy, and make them rich exceedingly. One thing 
has rather puzzled him. M. Baroche, who is in New Or- 
leans, either as a looker-on or as an accredited employe of 
his father or of the French Government, suggested to him 
that it would not be possible for all the disposable mercan- 
tile marine of England and France together to carry the 
cotton crop, which hitherto gave employment to a great 
number of American vessels, now tabooed by the South, 
and the calculations seem to bear out the truth of the re- 
mark. Be that as it may, Mr. Forstall is quite prepared to 
show that the South can raise a prodigious revenue by a 
small direct taxation, for* which the machinery already ex- 
ists in every parish of the State, and that the North must 
be prodigiously damaged in the struggle, if not ruined out- 
right. One great source of strength in the South is its 
readiness — at least, its professed alacrity — to yield any- 
thing that it is asked. There is unbounded confidence in 
Mr. Jefferson Davis. Wherever I go, the same question is 
asked : " Well, Sir, what do you think of our President ? 
Does he not strike you as being a very able man ? " In 
finance he is trusted as much as in war. When he sent or- 
ders to the New Orleans Banks, some time ago, to suspend 
specie payment, he exercised a power which could not be 
justified by any reading of the Southern Constitution. All 
men applauded. The President of the United States is far 
from receiving any such support or confidence, and it need 
not be said any act of his of the same nature as that of Mr. 
Davis would have created an immense outcry against him. 
But the South has all the unanimity of a conspiracy, and its 



148 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 

unanimity is not greater than its confidence. One is rather 
tired of endless questions, " Who can conquer such men ? " 
But the question should be, " Can the North conquer us ? " 
Or the fustian about dying in their tracks and fighting till 
every man, woman and child is exterminated, there is a 
great deal too much, but they really believe that the fate 
which Poland could not avert, to which France as well as 
the nations she overran bowed the head, can never reach 
them. With their faithful negroes to raise their corn, sugar 
and cotton while they are at the wars, and England and 
France to take the latter and pay them for it, they believe 
they can meet the American world in arms. A glorious 
future opens before them. Illimitable fields tilled by mul- 
titudinous negroes open on their vision, and prostrate at the 
base of the mountain of cotton from which they rule the 
kings of the earth, the empires of Europe shall lie, with all 
their gold, their manufactures, and their industry, crying 
out, " Pray give us more cotton ! All we ask is more ! " 
But here is the boat stopping oyposite Mr. Roman's — ■ Ex- 
Governor of the State of Louisiana, and Ex- Commissioner 
from the Confederate Government at Montgomery to the 
Government of the United States at Washington. Not very 
long ago he could boast of a very handsome garden — the 
French Creoles love gardens -^ Americans and English -do 
not much afiect them ; when the Mississippi was low one 
fine day, levee and all slid down the bank into the maw. of 
the river, and were carried ofi*. This is what is called the 
" caving in " of a bank ; when the levee is broken through 
at high water it is said that a " crevasse ' ' has taken place. 
The Governor, as he is called — once a captain always a 
captain — has still a handsome garden, however, though his 
house has been brought unpleasantly near the river. His 
mansion and the out-ofiices stand in the shade of magno- 
lias, green oaks, and other Southern trees. To the last 
Governor Boman was a Unionist, but when his State went 
he followed her, and now he is a Secessionist for life and for 
death, not extravagant in his hopes, but calm and resolute, 
and fully persuaded that in the end the South must win. 
As he does not raise any cotton, the consequences for him 
will be extremely serious should sugar be greatly depreci- 
ated ; but the consumption of that article in America is 
very large, and, though the markets in the North and West 
are cut off", it is hoped, as no imported sugar can find its 
way into the States, that the South will consume all its own 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 149 

produce at a fair rate. The Governor is a very good tj^pe 
of the race, which is giving way a little before the en- 
croachments of the Anglo-Saxons, and he possesses all the 
ease, candid manner, and suavity of the old French gentle- 
man — of that school in which there are now few masters or 
scholars. He invited me to visit the negro quarters. " Go 
where you like, do what you please, ask any questions. 
There is nothing we desire to conceal." As we passed the 
house, two or three young women flitted past in snow-white 
dresses with pink sashes, and no doubtful crinolines, but 
their head-dresses were not en regie — handkerchiefs of a 
gay color. They were slaves going off to a dance at the 
sugar-house ; but they were in-door servants, and therefore 
better off in the way of clothes than their fellow slaves who 
labor in the field. On approaching a high paling at the 
rear of the house the scraping of fiddles was audible. It 
was Sunday, and Mr. Roman informed me that he gave his 
negroes leave to have a dance on that day. The planters 
who are not Catholics rarely give any such indulgence to 
their slaves, though they do not always make them work on 
that day, and sometimes let them enjoy themselves on the 
Saturday afternoon. Entering a wicket gate, a quadrangu- 
lar enclosure, lined with negro huts, lay • before us. The 
bare ground was covered with litter of various kinds, amid 
which pigs and poultry were pasturing. Dogs, puppies, 
and curs of low degree scampered about on all sides ; and 
deep in a pond, s winking in the sun, stood some thirty or 
forty mules, enjoying their day of rest. The huts of the 
negroes, belonging to the personal service of the house, were 
separated from the negroes engaged in field labor by a close 
wooden paling ; but there was no difference in the shape 
and size of their dwellings, which consisted generally of one 
large room, divided by a partition occasionally into two bed- 
rooms. Outside the whitewash gave them a cleanly appear- 
ance ; inside they were dingy and squalid — no glass in the 
windows, swarms of flies, some clothes hanging on nails in 
the boards, dressers with broken crockery, a bedstead of 
rough carpentry ; a flreplace in which, hot as was the day, a 
log lay in embers ; a couple of tin cooking utensils ; in the 
obscure, the occupant, male or female, awkward and shy 
before strangers, and silent till spoken to. Of course there 
were no books, for the slaves do not read. They all seemed 
respectful to their master. We saw very old men and very 
old women, who were the canker-worms of the estate, and 
13* 



150 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

were dozing away into eternity mindful only of hominy, 
and pig, and molasses. Two negro fiddlers were working 
their bows with energy in front of one of the huts, and a 
crowd of little children were listening to the music, and a 
few gro vn-up persons of color — some of them from the ad- 
joining plantations. The children are generally dressed in 
a little sack of coarse calico, which answers all reasonable 
purposes, even if it be not very clean. It might be an in- 
teresting subject of inquiry to the natural philosophers who 
follow crinology to determine why it is that the hair of the 
infant negro, or of the child up to six or seven years of age, 
is generally a fine red russet, or even gamboge color, and 
gradually darkens into dull ebon. These little bodies were 
mostly large-stomached, well fed, and not less happy than 
free-born children, although much more valuable — for 
once they get over juvenile dangers, and advance towards 
nine or ten years of age, they rise in value to £100 or more, 
even in times when the market is low and money is scarce. 
The women were not very well-favored, except one yellow 
girl, whose child was quite white, with fair hair and light 
eyes ; and the men were disguised in such strangely cut 
clothes, their hats and shoes and coats were so wonderfully 
made, that one could not tell what they were like. On all 
faces there was a gravity which must be the index to serene 
contentment and perfect comfort, for those who ought to 
know best declare they are the happiest race in the world. 
It struck me more and more, as I examined the expression 
of the faces of the slaves all over the South, that deep de- 
jection is the prevailing-, if not universal, characteristic of the 
race. Let a physiognomist go and see. Here there were 
abundant evidences that they were well treated, for they had 
good clothing of its kind, good food, and a master who wit- 
tingly could do them no injustice, as he is, I am sure, inca- 
pable of it. Still, they all looked exceedingly sad, and even 
the old woman who boasted that she had held her old mas- 
ter in her arms when he was an infant, did not look cheer- 
ful, as the nurse at home would have done, at the sight of 
her ancient charge. The precincts of the huts were not 
clean, and the enclosure was full of weeds, in which poultry 
— the perquisites of the slaves — were in full possession. 
The negroes rear domestic birds of all kinds, and sell eggs 
and poultry to their masters. The money they spend in 
purchasing tobacco, molasses, clothes and flour — whiskey, 
their great delight, they must not have. Some seventy or 



THE CIVIIi WAR IN AMEHICA. 151 

eighty hands were quartered in this part of the estate. The 
silence which reigned in the huts as soon as the fiddlers had 
gone off to the sugar-house was profound. Before leaving 
the quarter I was taken to the hospital, which was in charge 
of an old negress. The naked rooms contained several 
flock beds on rough stands, and five patients, three of whom 
were women. They sat listlessly on the beds, looking out 
into space ; no books to amuse them, no conversation — 
nothing but their own dull thoughts, if they had any. They 
were suffering from pneumonia and swellings of the glands 
of the neck ; one man had fever. Their medical attendant 
visits them regularly, and each plantation has a practitioner, 
who is engaged by the term for his services. Negroes have 
now only a nominal value in the market — that the price of 
a good field hand is as high as ever, but there is no one to 
buy him at present, and no money to pay for him, and the 
trade of the slave-dealers is very bad. The menageries of 
the " Virginia negroes constantly on sale. Money advanced 
on all descriptions of property," &c., must be full — their 
pockets empty. This question of price is introduced inci- 
dentally in reference to the treatment of negroes. It has' 
often been said to m6 that no one will ill-use a creature 
worth £300 or £400, but that is not a universal rule. Much 
depends on temper, and many a hunting-field could show^ 
that if value be a guarantee for good usage," the slave is more 
fortunate than his fellow chattel, the horse. If the growth 
of sugar-cane, cotton and corn, be the great end of man's 
mission on earth, and if all masters were like Governor Ro- 
man, Slavery might be defended as a natural and innocuous 
institution. Sugar and cotton are, assuredly, two great 
agencies in this latter world. The older got on well enough 
without them. 

The scraping of the fiddles attracted us to the sugar- 
house, a large brick building with a factory-looking chim- 
ney, where the juice of the cane is expressed, boiled, granu- 
lated, and prepared for the refiner. In a space of the floor 
unoccupied by machinery some fifteen women and as many 
men were assembled, and four couples were dancing a kind 
of Irish jig to the music of the negro musicians — a double 
shuffle and thumping ecstasy, with loose elbows, pendu-" 
lous paws, and angulated knees, heads thrown back, and 
backs arched inwards — a glazed eye, intense solemnity of 
mien, tv'orthy of the minuet in Don Giovanni. At this time 
of year there is no work done in the sugar-house, but when 



152 THE CIYIL WAR I]^5^ AMERICA. 

the crushing and boiling are going on the labor is intense, 
and all the hands work in gangs night and day ; and, if the 
heat of the fires be superadded to the temperature in Sep- 
tember, it may be conceded that nothing but " involuntary 
servitude " could go through the toil and sufi'ering required 
to produce sugar for us. This is not the place for an ac- 
count of the processes and machinery used in the manufac- 
ture, which is a scientific operation, greatly improved by 
recent discoveries and apparatus. 

In the afternoon the Governor's son came in from the 
company which he commands. He has been camping out 
with them to accustom them to the duties of actual war, and 
he told me that all his men were most zealous and exceed- 
ingly proficient. They are all of the best families around, — 
planters, large and small, their sons and relatives, and a few 
of the Creole population, who are engaged as hoopers and 
stavemakers. One of the latter had just stained his hands 
with blood. He had reason to believe a culpable intimacy 
existed between his wife and his foreman. A circumstance 
.occurred which appeared to confirm his worst suspicions. 
He took out his fire-lock, and, meetirg the man, he shot 
him without uttering a word, and then delivered himself up 
to the authorities. It is probable his punishment will be 
exceedingly light, as divorce suits and actions for damages 
are not in favor 'in this part of the world. Although the 
people are Roman Catholics, it is by no means unusual to 
permit relations within the degree of consanguinity forbid- 
den by the Church to intermarry, and the elastic nature of 
the rules which are laid down by the priesthood in that 
respect would greatly astonish the orthodox in Ireland or 
Bavaria. The whole of the planters and their dependents 
along " the coast " are in arms. There is but one senti- 
ment, as far as I can see, among them, and that is, " We 
will never submit to the North." In the evening, several 
officers of M. Alfred Roman's company and neighbors came 
in, and out under the shade of the trees, in the twilight, 
illuminated by the flashing fireflies, politics were discussed 
— all on one side, of course, with general conversation of 
a more agreeable character. The customary language of the 
Creoles is French, and several newspapers in French are 
published in the districts around us ; but they speak Eng- 
lish fluently. 

Next morning, early, the Governor was in the sadSle and 
took me round to see his plantation. We rode through 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 153 

alleys formed by the tall stalks of the maze out to the 
wide, unbroken fields — hedgeless, unwalled, where the 
green cane was just learning to wave its long shoots in the 
wind. Along the margin in the distance there is an un- 
broken boundary of forest extending all along the swamp 
lands, and two miles in depth. From the river to the forest 
there is about one mile and a half or more of land of the 
very highest quality — unfathomable, and producing from 
one to one and a half hogshead an acre. Away in the 
midst of the crops were white-looking masses, reminding 
me of the sepoys and sowars as seen in Indian fields in the 
morning sun on many a march. As we rode towards them 
we overtook a cart with a large cask, a number of tin ves- 
sels, a bucket of molasses, a pail of milk, and a tub full of 
hominy or boiled Indian corn. The cask contained water 
for the use of the negroes, and the other vessel held the 
materials for their breakfast, in addition to which they gen- 
erally have each a dried fish. The food looked ample and 
wholesome, such as any laboring man would be well content 
with every day. There were three gangs at work in the 
fields. One of them with twenty mules and plows, was en- 
gaged in running through the furrows between the canes, 
cutting up the weeds and clearing away the grass, which is 
the enemy of the growing shoot. The mules are of a fine, 
large, good-tempered kind, and understand their work al- 
most as well as the drivers, who are usually the more intel- 
ligent hand on the plantation. The overseer, a sharp-look- 
ing Creole, on a lanky pony, whip in hand, superintend 
their labors, and, after a few directions and' a salutation to 
the governor, rode off" to another part of the farm. The 
negroes when spoken to saluted us and came forward to 
shake hands — a civility which must not be refused. With 
the exception of crying to their mules, however, they kept 
silence when at work. Another gang consisted of forty 
men, who were hoeing out the grass in Indian corn — easy 
work enough. The third gang was of thirty-six or thirty- 
seven women, who were engaged in hoeing out cane. Their 
clothing seemed heavy for the climate, their shoes ponderous 
and ill-made, so as to wear away the feet of their thick 
stockings. Coarse straw hats and bright cotton handker- 
chiefs protected their heads from the sun. The silence 
which I have already alluded to prevailed among these 
gangs also — not a sound could be heard but the blows of 
the hoe on the heavy clods. In the rear of each gang stood 



154 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

a black overseer, with a heavy-thonged whip over his 
shoulder. If " Alcibiadev" or " Pompee" were called out, 
he came with outstretched hand to ask " how do you do," 
and then returned to his labor ; but the ladies were coy, 
and scarcely looked up from under their flapping chapeaux 
de paille at their visitors. Those who are mothers leave 
their children in the charge of certain old women, unfit for 
anything else, and " suckers," as they are called, are per- 
mitted to go home to give their infants the breast at ap- 
pointed periods in the day. I returned home multa mecum 
revolens. After breakfast, in spite of a very fine sun, which 
was not unworthy of a January noon in Cawnpore, we 
drove forth to visit some planter friends of M. Roman, a 
few miles down the river. The levee road is dusty, but the 
gardens, white railings, and neat houses of the planters 
looked fresh and clean enough. There is a great difference 
in the appearance of the slaves' quarters. Some are neat, 
others are dilapidated and mean. As a general rule, it 
might be said that the goodness of the cottages was in pro- 
portion to the frontage of each plantation towards the river, 
which is a fair index to the size of the estate wherever 
the river bank is straight. The lines of the estate are 
drawn perpendicularly to the banks, so that the convexity 
or concavity of the bends determines the frontage of the 
plantation. 

The absence of human beings in the fields and on the 
roads was remarkable. The gangs at work were hidden in 
the deep corn, and not a soul met us on the road for many 
miles except one planter in his gig. At one place we visit- 
ed a very handsome garden, laid out with hot-houses and 
conservatories, ponds full of magnificent Victoria Regia 
in flower, orange trees, and many other tropical plants, na- 
tive and foreign, date and other palms. The proprietor 
owns an extensive sugar refinery. We visited his factory 
and mills, but the heat from the boilers, which seemed too 
much even for all but naked negroes who were at work, 
did not tempt us to make a very long sojourn inside. The 
ebony faces and polished black backs of the slaves were 
streaming with perspiration as they toiled over boiler, vat 
and centrifugal driers. The good refiner was not gaining 
much at present, for sugar has been falling rapidly in New 
Orleans, and the three hundred thousand barrels produced 
annually in the South will fall short in the yield of profit, 
which, on an average, may be taken at £11 a hogshead. 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 



155 



without counting the molasses for the planter. All the 
planters hereabouts have sown an unusual quantity of Indian 
Corn, so as to have food for the negroes if the war lasts, 
without any distress from inland or sea blockade. The ab- 
surdity of supposing that blockade can injure them in the 
way of supply is a favorite theme to descant upon. They 
may find out, however, that it is no contemptible means of 
warfare. At night, after our return, a large bonfire was 
lighted on the bank to attract the steamer to call for my 
luggage, which she was to leave at a point on the opposite 
shore, fourteen miles higher up, and I perceived that there 
are regular patrols and watchmen at night who look after 
levees and the negroes ; a number of dogs are also loosed, 
but I am assured by a gentleman, who has written me a 
long letter on the subject from Montgomery, that these dogs 
do not tear the negroes ; they are taught merely to catch 
and mumble them, to treat them as a retriever well broken 
uses a wild duck. Next day I left the hospitable house of 
Governor Roman, full of regard for his personal character 
and of wishes for his happiness and prosperity, but assured- 
ly in no degree satisfied that even with his care and kind- 
ness even the " domestic institution " can be rendered tol- 
erable or defensible, if it be once conceded that the negro 
is a human being with a soul — or with the feelings of a 
man. On those points there are ingenious hypotheses and 
subtle argumentations in print " down South," which do 
much to comfort the consciences of the anthropoproprietors. 
The negro skull won't hold as many ounces as that of the 
white man's. Can there be a more potent proof that the 
white man has a right to sell and to own a creature who 
carries a smaller charge of snipe dust in his head ? He is 
plantigrade and curved as to the tibia ! Cogent demonstra- 
tion that he was made expressly to work for the arch-footed, 
straight- tibia' d Caucasian. He has a rete mucosum and a 
colored pigment. Surely he cannot have a soul of the same 
color as that of an Italian or a Spaniard, far less of a fiaxen- 
haired Saxon ! See these peculiarities in the frontal sinus 
— in sinciput or occiput ! Can you doubt that the being 
with a head of that nature was made only to till, hoe, and 
dig for another race ? Besides the Bible says that he is a 
son of Ham, and prophecy must be carried out in the rice 
swamps, sugar canes, and maize-fields of the Southern Con- 
federation. It's flat blasphemy to set yourself against it. 
Our Saviour sanctions Slavery because he does not say 



156 THE CITIL WAR IN AMERICA*. 

a word against it, and it's very likely that St. Paul was a 
slave-owner. Had cotton and sugar been known, he might 
have been a planter ! Besides, the negro is civilized 
by being carried away from Africa and set to work, instead 
of idling in native inutility. What hope is there of 
Christianizing the African races except by the agency of the 
apostles from New Orleans, Mobile, or Charleston, who sing 
the sNveet songs of Zion with such vehemence, and clamor 
so fervently for baptism in the waters of the " Jawdam? " 
If these high, physical, metaphysical, moral and religious 
reasonings do not satisfy you, and you venture to be uncon- 
vinced and to say so, then I advise you not to come within 
reach of a mass meeting of our citizens, who may be able 
to find a rope and a tree in the neighborhood. 

As we jog along in an easy -rolling carriage drawn by a 
pair of stout horses, a number of white people met us com- 
ing from the Catholic chapel of the parish, where they had 
been attending a service for the repose of the soul of a lady 
much beloved in the neighborhood. The black people are 
supposed to have very happy souls, or to be as utterly lost 
as Mr. Shandy's homuncule was under certain circumstances, 
for I have failed to find that any such services are ever con- 
sidered necessary in their case, although they may have been 
very good — or where it would be most desirable — very bad 
Catholics. My good young friend, clever, amiable, accom- 
plished, who had a dark cloud of sorrow weighing down his 
young life, that softened him to almost feminine tenderness, 
saw none of these things. He talked of foreign travel in 
days gone by — of Paris and poetry, of England and Lon- 
don hotels, of the great Careme, and of poor Alexis Soyer, 
of pictures, of politics — de omrie scihili. The storm gathered 
overhead, and the rain fell in torents — the Mississippi 
flowed lifelessly by — not a boat on its broad surface. The 
road passed by plantations smaller and poorer than I have 
yet seen belonging to small planters, with only some ten or 
twelve slaves, all told. The houses were poor and ragged. 
At last we reached Governor Manning's place, and drove to 
the overseer's — a large, heavy-eyed old man, who asked us 
into his house from out of the rain till the boat was ready 
— and the river did not look inviting — full of drift trees, 
swirls, and mighty eddies. In the plain room in which we 
sat there was a volume of Spurgeon's Sermons and Baxter's 
works. " This rain will do good to our corn," said the over- 
seer. " The niggers has had sceerce nothin' to do leetly, as 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 157 

tbey 'eve clearied out the fields pretty well." We drove 
down to a poor shed on the levee called the Ferry-house, 
attended by one stout, young slave who was to row me over. 
Two flat-bottomed skiffs lay on the bank. The negro groped 
under the shed, and pulled out a piece of wood like a large 
spatula, some four feet long, and a small, round pole a little 
longer. " What are those? " quoth I, " Dem's oars, Massa," 
was my sable ferryman's brisk reply. " I'm very sure they 
are not ; if they were spliced they might make an oar between 
them." " Golly, and dat's the trute, Massa." " There, go 
and get oars, will you ? " While he was hunting about we 
entered the shed for shelter from the rain. We found "a 
solitary woman sitting " smoking a pipe by the ashes on the 
hearth, blear-eyed, low-browed, and morose — young as she 
was. She never said a word nor moved as we came in, sat 
and smoked, and looked through her gummy eyes at chickens 
about the size of sparrows, and at a cat no larger than a rat, 
which ran about on the dirty floor. A little girl some four 
years of age, not over-dressed — indeed, half-naked, " not to 
put too fine a point upon it " — crawled out from under the 
bed, where she had hid on our approach. As she seemed 
incapable of appreciating the uses of a small piece of silver 
presented to her — having no precise ideas on coinage or 
toffy — her parent took the obolus in charge with unmis- 
takable decision ; but, still, she would not stir a step to aid 
our Charon, who now insisted on the " key ov de oar -house." 
The little thing sidled off and hunted it out from the top of 
the bedstead, and I was not sorry to quit the company of the 
silent woman in black. Charon pushed his skiff into the 
water — there was a good deal of rain in it — in shape a 
snuffer-dish, some ten feet long and a foot deep. I got in 
and the conscious waters immediately began vigorously spurt- 
ing through the cotton wadding wherewith the craft was 
caulked. Had we gone out into the stream we should have 
had a swim for it, and they do say that the Mississippi is the 
most dangerous river for that healthful exercise in the known 
world. " Why, deuce take you " (I said at least that, in my 
wrath), " don't you see that the boat is leaky? " " See it 
now for true, Massa. Nobody able to tell dat till Massa get 
in, tho'." Another skiff proved to be stanch. I bade good 
bye to my friend, and sat down in my boat, which was soon 
forced up along the stream close to the bank, in order to get 
a good start across to the other side. The view, from my 
lonely position, was curious, but not at all picturesque. The 
14 



158 THE CIYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

landscape had disappeared at once. The world was bounded 
on both sides by a high bank, and was constituted by a broad 
river — just as if one were sailing down an open sewer of 
enormous length and breadth. Above the bank rose, how- 
ever, the tops of tall trees and the chimneys of sugar-houses. 
A row of a quarter of an hour brought us to the levee on the 
other side. I ascended the bank and directly in front of me, 
across the road, appeared a carriage gateway, and wickets of 
wood, painted white, in a line of park palings of the same 
material, which extended up and down the road as far as the 
eye could follow, and guarded wide-spread fields of maize 
and sugar-cane. An avenue of trees, with branches close 
set, drooping and overarching a walk paved with red brick, 
led to the house, the porch of which was just visible at 
the extremity of the lawn, with clustering flowers, rose, jes- 
samine, and creepers clinging to the pillars supporting the 
verandah. The proprietor, who had espied my approach, 
issued forth with a section of sable attendants in his rear, 
and gave me a hearty welcome. The house was larger and 
better than the residences even of the. richest planters, though 
it was in need of some little repair, and had been built per- 
haps fifty years ago, but it had belonged to a wealthy family, 
who lived in the good old Irish fashion, and who built well, 
ate well, drank well, and — finally, paid very well. The view 
from the Belvedere was one of the most striking of its kind 
in the world. If an English agriculturist could see 6,000 
acres of the finest land in one field, unbroken by hedge or 
boundary, and covered with the most magnificent crops of 
tasselling Indian corn and sprouting sugar-cane, as level as 
a billiard table, he would surely doubt his senses. But here 
is literally such a sight. Six thousand acres, better tilled 
than the finest patch in all the Lothians, green as Meath 
pastures, which can be cultivated for a hundred years to 
come without requiring manure, of depth practically unlim- 
ited, and yielding an average profit on what is sold ofi" it 
of at least £20 an acre at the old prices and usual yield 
of sugar. Rising up in the midst of the verdure are the 
white lines of the negro cottages and the plantation offices 
and sugar-houses, which look like large public edifices 
in the distance. And who is the lord of all this fair 
domain ? The proprietor of Houmas and Orange-grove is a 
man, a self-made one, who has attained his apogee on the 
bright side of half a century, after twenty-five years of suc- 
cessful business. 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 159 

When my eyes " uncurtained the early morning" I might 
have imagined myself in the magic garden of Cherry and 
Fair Star, so incessant and multifarious were the carols of 
the birds, which were the only happy colored people I saw 
in my Southern tour, notwithstanding the assurances of the 
many ingenious and candid gentlemen who attempted to 
prove to me that the palm of terrestrial felicity must be 
awarded to their negroes. As I stepped through my window 
upon the verandah, a sharp chirp called my attention to a 
mocking-bird perched upon a rose-bush beneath, whom my 
presence seemed to annoy to such a degree that I retreated 
behind my curtain, whence I observed her flight to a nest 
cunningly hid in a creeping rose trailed around a neighboring 
column of the house, where she imparted a breakfast of 
spiders and grasshoppers to her gaping and clamorous off- 
spring. While I was admiring the motherly grace of this 
melodious flycatcher, a servant brought coff'ee, and an- 
nounced that the horses were ready, and that I might have 
a three-hours' ride before breakfast. , At Houmas les jours 
se suivent et se ressemblent, and an epitome of the first will 
serve as a type for all, with the exception of such variations 
in the kitchen and cellar produce as the ingenuity and ex- 
haustless hospitality of my host were never tired of framing. 

If I regretted the absence of our English agriculturist when 
I beheld the 6,000 acres of cane and 1,600 of maize unfolded 
from the Belvedere the day previous, I longed for his pre- 
sence still more, when I saw those evidences of luxuriant 
fertility attained without the aid of phosphates or guano. 
The rich Mississippi bottoms need no manure, a rotation of 
maize with cane afl'ords them the necessary recuperative 
action. The cane of last year's plant is left in stubble, and 
renews its growth this spring under the title of ratoons. 
When the maize is in tassel, cow-peas are dropped between 
the rows, and when the lordly stalk, of which I measured 
many twelve and even fifteen feet in height — bearing three 
and sometimes four ears — is topped to admit the ripening sun, 
the pea vine twines itself around the trunk, with a profusion of 
leaf and tendril that supplies the planter with the most desir- 
able fodder for his mules in *' rolling time," which is their 
season of trial. Besides this, the corn blades are culled and 
cured. These are the best meals of the Southern race-horse, 
and constitute nutritious hay without dust. The cow-pea is 
said to strengthen the system of the earth for the digestion 
of a new crop of sugar-cane. A sufficient quantity of the 



160 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

cane of last season is reserved from the mill and laid in pits, 
where the ends of the stalk are carefully closed with earth 
until spring. After the ground has been ploughed into 
ridges these canes are laid in the endless tumuli, and not 
long after their interment a fresh sprout springs at each 
joint of these interminable flutes. 

As we ride through the wagon roads, of which there are 
not less than thirty miles in this confederation of four plan- 
tations, held together by the purse and the life of our host, 
the unwavering exactitude of the rows of cane, which run 
without deviation at right angles with the river down to the 
cane-brake, two miles off, proves that the negro would be a 
formidable rival in a plowing match. The cane has been 
"laid by" — that is, it requires no more labor — and will 
" lap," or close up, though the rows are seven feet apart. It 
feathers like a palm top ; a stalk which was cut measured six 
feet, although from the ridges it was but waist high. On 
dissecting it near the root, we find five nascent joints, not a 
quarter of an inch apart. In a few weeks more these will 
shoot up like a spy-glass pulled out to its focus. 

There are four lordly sugar-houses, as the grinding mills and 
boiling and crystalizing buildings are called, and near each is 
to be found the negro village, or " quarter," of that section of 
the plantation. A wide avenue, generally lined with trees, 
runs through these hamlets, which consist of twenty or thirty 
white cottages, single storied and divided into four rooms. 
They are whitewashed, and at no great distance might be 
mistaken for New England villages, with a town-hall which 
often serves in the latter for a " meeting-house," with, occa- 
sionally, a row of stores on the ground floor. 

The people, or "hands," are in the field, and the only 
inhabitants of the settlements are scores of " picaninnies," 
who seem a jolly congregation, under the care of crones, who 
here, as in an Indian village, act as nurses to the rising gen- 
eration destined from their births to the limits of a social 
Procrustean bed. The increase of property on the estate is 
about 5 per cent, per annum by the birth of children. 

We ride an hour before coming upon any " hands " at 
work in the fields. There is an air of fertile desolation that 
prevails in no other cultivated land. The regularity of the 
cane, its garden-like freedom from grass or weeds, and the 
ad unguem finish and evenness of the furrows would seem 
the work of nocturnal fairies, did we not realize the sys- 
tem of "gang-labor" exemplified in a field we at length 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 161 

reach, where some thirty men and women were giving with 
the hoe the last polish to the earth around the cane, which 
would not be molested again until gathered for the autumnal 
banquet of the rolling-mills. 

Small drains and larger ditches occur at almost every step. 
All these flow into a channel, some fifteen feet wide, which 
runs between the plantations and the uncleared forest, and 
carries off the water to a " bayou" still more remote. There 
are twenty miles of deep ditching before the plantation, 
exclusive of the canal, and as this is the contract work of 
"Irish navvies," the sigh with which our host alluded to 
this heavy item in plantation expenses, was expressive. The 
work is too severe for African thews, and experience has 
shown it a bad economy to overtask the slave. The sugar- 
planter lives in apprehension of four enemies. These are 
the river when rising, drought, too much or unseasonable 
rain, and frost. The last calls into play all his energies, and 
tasks his utmost composure. In Louisiana the cane never 
ripens as it does in Cuba, and they begin to grind as early 
in October as the amount of juices will permit. The ques- 
tion of a crop is one of early or late frost. With two months' 
exemption they rely, in a fair season, upon a hogshead of 
1,200 pounds to the acre, and if they can run their mills 
until January, the increase is more than proportionate, each 
of its latter days in the earth adding saccharine virtue to the 
cane. 

At an average of a hogshead to the acre, each working 
hand is good for seven hogsheads a year, which, at last 
year's prices, 8 cents per pound for ordinury qualities, would 
be a yield of £140 per annum for each full field hand. 

Two hogsheads to the acre are not unfrequently, and even 
three have been, produced upon rich lands in a good season. 
Estimating the sugar at 70 per cent., and the refuse, bagasse, 
at 30 per cent., the latter would give us two tuns and a 
quarter to the acre, which open one's eyes to the tireless 
activity of nature ia this semi-tropical region. 

From the records of Houmas I find that, in 1857, the 
year of its purshase at about £300,000, it yielded a gross of 
$304,000, say £63,000, upon the investment. 

In the rear of this great plantation there are 18,000 ad- 
ditional acres of cane-brake which are being slowly reclaim- 
ed, like the fields now rejoicing in crops, as fast as the 
furnace of the sugar-house calls for fuel. Were it desirable 
to accelerate the preparation of this reserve for planting, it 
14* 



162 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

might be put in tolerable order in three years at a cost of 
^15 per acre. We extended our ride into this jungle on 
the borders of which, in the unfinished clearing, I saw plan- 
tations of " negro corn," the sable cultivators of which 
seem to have disregarded the symmetry practised in the fields 
of their master, who allows them from Saturday noon until 
Monday's cockcrow for the care of their private interests, 
and in addition to this, whatever hours in the week they can 
economize by the brisk fulfilment of their allotted tasks. 
Some of these patches are sown broadcast, and the corn has 
sprung up like Zouave tirailleurs in their most fantastic 
vagaries, rather than like the steady regimental drill of the 
cane and maize we have been traversing. 

Corn, chickens, and eggs, are from time immemorial the 
perquisites of the negro, who has the monopoly of the two 
last named articles in all well ordered Louisiana plantations. 
Indeed, the white man cannot compete with them in raising 
poultry, and our host was evidently delighted when one of 
his negroes, who had brought a dozen Muscovy ducks to the 
mansion, refused to sell them to him except for cash. " But 
Louis, won't you trust me ? Am I not good for three 
dollars ?" " Good enough, Massa ; but dis nigger want de 
money to buy flour and coffee for him young family. Folks 
at Donaldsonville will trust Massa — won't trust nigger." 
The money was paid, and, as the negro left us, his master 
observed, with a sly, humorous twinkle, " That fellow sold 
forty dollars worth of corn last year, and all of them feed 
their chickens with my corn, and sell their own." 

There are three overseers at Houmas, one of whom super- 
intends the whole plantation, and likewise looks after another 
estate of 8,000 acres, some twelve miles down the river, which 
our host added to his possession two years since, at a cost 
of £150,000. In any part of the world, and in any calling, 

Mr. S (I do not know if he would like to see his name 

in print) would be. considered an able man. Mr. S. attends 
to most of the practice requiring immediate attention. We 
visited one of those hospitals, and found half a dozen 
patients ill of fever, rheumatism, and indigestion, and appa- 
rently well cared for by a couple of stout nurses. The 
truckle bedsteads were garnished with mosquito bars, and I 
was told that the hospital is a favorite resort, which its in- 
mates leave with reluctance. The pharmaceutical depart- 
ment was largely supplied with a variety of medicines, 
quinine and preparations of sulphites of iron. " Poor drugs," 
said Mr. S., " are a poor economy." 



THE civil' WAR IN AMERICA. 163 

I have mentioned engineering as one of the requisites of 
a competent overseer. To explain this I must observe that 
Houmas is esteemed very high land, and that in its cultivated 
breadth there is only a fall of eight feet to carry off its 
surplus water. In the plantation of Governor Manning, 
which adjoins it, an expensive steam draining machine is 
employed to relieve his fields of this encumbrance, which is 
effected by the revolutions of a fan- wheel some twenty feet 
in diameter, which laps up the water from a narrow trough 
into which all the drainage flows, and tosses it into an ad- 
joining bayou. 

On Governor Manning's plantation we saw the process of 
clearing the primitive forest, of which 150 acres were 
sown in corn and cotton beneath the tall girdled trees that 
awaited the axe, while an equal breadth on the other side of 
a broad and deep canal was reluctantly yielding its tufted 
and fibrous soil, from which the jungle had just been re- 
moved, to the ploughs of some fifty negroes, drawn by two 
mules each. Another season of lustration by maize or 
cotton, and the rank soil will be ready for the cane. 

The cultivation of sugar differs from that of cotton in 
requiring a much larger outlay of capital. There is little re- 
quired for the latter besides negroes and land, which may be 
bought on credit, and a year's clothing and provisions. 
There is a gambling spice in the chances of a season which 
may bring wealth or ruin — a bale to the acre, which may 
produce 7d. per pound. In a fair year the cotton planter 
reckons upon ten or twelve bales to the hand, in which case 
the annual yield of a negro varies from £90 to £120. His 
enemies are drought, excessive rains, the ball worm, and the 
army worm ; his best friend " a long picking season." 

There is more steadiness in the price of sugar, and a 
greater certainty of an average crop. But the cost of a 
sugar-house, with its mill, boilers, vacuum pans, centrifugal 
and drying apparatus, cannot be less than £10,000, and the 
consumption of fuel — thousands of cords of which are cut 
by the " hands" — is enormous. There were cases of large 
fortunes earned by planting sugar with large beginnings, but 
these had chiefly occurred among early settlers, who had 
obtained their lands for a song. A Creole, who recently 
died at the age of fifty-five, in the neigborhood, and who began 
with only a few thousand dollars, had amassed more than 
$1 ,000,000 in twenty-five years, and two of his sons — skilful 
planters — were likely to die each richer than his father. 



164 THE ClYIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

This year the prospects of sugar are dreary enough, at 
least while the civil war lasts, and my host, with a certainty 
of 6,500 hogsheads upon his various plantations, has none of 
a market. In this respect cotton has the advantage of 
keeping longer than sugar. At last year's prices, and with 
the United States protective tariff of 20 per cent to shield 
him from foreign competition, his crop would have yielded 
him over £100,000. But all the sweet teeth of ths Con- 
federate States army can hardly " make a hole " in the 
450,000 hogsheads which this year is expected to yield in 
Louisiana and Texas. Under the new tariff of the Seceding 
States the loss of protection to Louisiana alone may be 
stated, within bounds, at $8,000,000 per annum — which is 
making the planters pay pretty dear for their Secession 
whistle. 

When I arrived at Houmas there was the greatest anxiety 
for rain, and over the vast, level plateau every cloud was 
scanned with avidity. Now, a shower seemed bearing right 
down upon us, when it would break, like a flying soap- 
bubble, and scatter its treasures short of the parched fields in 
which we felt interested. The wind shifted and hopes were 
raised that the next thunder-cloud would prove less illusory. 
But no! " Kenner" has got it all. On the fifth day, how- 
ever, the hearts of all the planters and their parched fields 
were gladdened by half a day of general and generous rain, 
beneath which our host's cane fairly reeled and reveled. It 
was now safe for the season, and so was the corn. But 
" one man's meat is another's poison," and we heard more 
than one " Jeremiad " from those whose fields had not been 
placed in the condition which enabled those of our friend to 
carry off a potation of twelve hours of tropical rain with the 
ease of an alderman or a Lord Chancellor made happier or 
wiser by his three bottles of port. 

What is termed hacienda in Cuba, ranclio in Mexico, and 
*' plantation" elsewhere, is styled " habitation " by the 
Creoles of Louisiana, whose ancestors began more than a 
century ago to reclaim its jungles 

At lest " venit summa dies et inetuctahile tempus.''' I had 
seen as much as might be of the best phase of the great in- 
stitution — less than I could desire of a most exemplary, 
kind-hearted, clear-headed, honest man. In the calm of a 
glorious summer evening, arrayed in all the splendor of 
scenery that belongs to dramas in Cloudland, where moun- 
tains of snow, peopled by '* gorgons,. and hydras, and 



THE CIVIL WAR IN" AMERICA. 165 

chimseras dire," rise from seas of fire that bear black barks, 
freighted with thunder, before the breeze of battle, we 
crossed the Father of Waters, waving an adieu to the good 
friend who stood on the shore, and turning our back to the 
home we had left behind us. 

It was dark when the boat reached Donaldsonville, on the 
opposite " coast." I should not be surprised to hear that 
the founder of this remarkable city, which once contained 
the archives of the State, now transferred to Baton Rouge, 
was a North Briton. There is a simplicity and economy in 
the plan of the place not unfavorable to that view, but the 
motives which induced the Donaldson to found his Rome on 
the west of Bayou La Fourche from Mississippi must be a 
secret to all time. Much must the worthy Scot have been 
perplexed by his neighbors, a long-reaching colony of Span- 
ish Creoles, who toil not and spin nothing but fishing-nets, 
and who live better than Solomon, and are probably as well 
dressed, minus tlie barbaric pearl and gold of the Hebrew 
potentate. Take the odd little, retiring, modest houses 
which grow in the hollows of Scarborough, add to them the 
least imposing mansions in the natural town of Folkestone, 
cast them broadsown over the surface of the Essex marshes, 
plant a few trees in front of them, then open a few " Cafe 
billiards " of the camp sort along the main street, and you 
have done a very good Donaldsonville. A policeman wel- 
comes us on landing, and does the honors of the market, 
which has a beggarly account of empty benches, the Texan 
bull done into beef, and a coffee-shop. The policeman is a 
tall, lean, west country man ; his story is simple, and he has 
it to tell. He was one of Dan Rice's company — a travel- 
ing Astley. He came to Donaldsonville, saw, and was 
conquered by one of the Spanish beauties, married her, be- 
came tavern keeper, failed, learned French, and was now 
constable of the parish. There was, however, a weight on 
his mind. He had studied the matter profoundly, but he 
was not near the bottom. How did the friends, relatives, 
and tribe of his wife live ? No one could say. They reared 
chickens, and they caught fish ; when there was a pressure 
on the planters, they turned out to work for 65. 6d. a day, 
but tho^e were rare occasions. The policeman had become 
quite gray with excogitating the matter, and he had " nary 
notion of how they did it." Donaldsonville has done one 
fine thing. It has furnished two companies of soldiers — 
all Irishmen — to the wars, and a third is in the course of 



166 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

formation. Not much hedging, ditching, or hard work 
these times for Paddy ? ' The blacksmith, a huge tower of 
muscle, claims exemption on the ground that " the divil a 
bit of him comes from Oireland ; he nivir hird av it, barrin' 
from the buks he rid," and is doing his best to remain be- 
hind, but popular opinion is against him. As the steamer 
would not be up till toward dawn, or later, it was a relief to 
saunter through Donaldsonville to see society, which con- 
sisted of several gentlemen and various Jews playing games 
unknown to Hoyle, in oaken bar-rooms flanked by billiard 
tables. My good friend the doctor, whom I had met at 
Houmas, who had crossed the river to see patients suffering 
from an attack of Euchre, took us round to a little club, 
where I was introduced to a number of gentlemen, who ex- 
pressed great pleasure at seeing me, shook hands violently, 
and walked away ; and finally we melted off into a cloud of 
mosquitoes by the river bank, in a box prepared for them, 
which was called a bedroom. These rooms were built in 
wood on the stage close to the river. " Why can't I have 
one of these rooms?" asked I, pointing to a larger mosqui- 
to-box. *' It's engaged by ladies." " How do you know .^ " 
" Parceque elles ont envoy es leur butin.'' It was delicious 
to meet the French "plunder" for baggage — an old phrase 
so nicely rendered in the mouth of the Mississippi boatman. 
Having passed a night of extreme discomfiture with the 
winged demons of the box, I was aroused toward dawn by 
the booming of the steam drum of the boat, dipped my head 
in water among drowned mosquitoes, and went forth upon 
the landing. The policeman had just arrived. His eagle 
eye lighted on a large flat, on the stern of which was in- 
scribed, " Pork, corn, butter, beef," &c. Several spry citi- 
zens were also on the platform. After salutations and com- 
pliments, policeman speaks: "When did she come in?" 
(meaning flat). First Citizen — "In the night, I guess." 
Second Citizen — "There's a lot of whiskey aboard, too." 
Policeman (with pleased surprise) — " You never mean it ? " 
First Citizen — " Yes, Sir ; one hundred and twenty gal- 
lons ! " Policeman (inspired by a bright aspiration of pa- 
triotism) — " It's a West country boat ; why donH the citi- 
zens seize it ? And whiskey rising from 17 cents to 35 cents 
a gallon I" Citizens murmur approval, and I feel the whis- 
key part of the cargo is not safe. " Yes, Sir," says Citizen 
Three, " they seize all our property at Cairey (Cairo), and 
I'm for making an example of this cargo." Fm-ther reasons 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA, 167 

for the seizure of the article were adduced, and it is probable 
they were as strong as the whiskey, which has, no doubt, 
been drunk long ago on the very purest principles. In 
course of conversation with the Committee of Taste which 
had assembled, it was revealed to me that there was a strict 
watch kept over those boats which are freighted with whis- 
key forbidden to the slaves, and with principles, when they 
come from the West country, equally objectionable. " Did 
you hear. Sir, of the chap over at Duncan Kenner's as was 
caught the other day ? " " No, Sir, what was it? " " Well, 
Sir, he was a man that came here and went over among the 
niggers at Kenner's to buy their chickens from them. He 
was took up, and they found he'd a lot of money about 
him." " Well, of course, he had money to buy the chick- 
ens." " Yes, Sir, but it looked suspic-ious. He was a 
West country fellow, tew, and he might have meant tam- 
perin' with 'em. Lucky he was not taken in the arternoon." 
"Why so?" "Because if the citizens had been drunk 
they'd have hung him on the spot." The Acadia was now 
alongside, and in the early morning Donaldsonville receded 
rapidly into trees and clouds. To bed, and make amends 
for mosquito visits. On awaking, find that I am in the 
same place I started from ; at least, the river looks just the 
same. It is difficult to believe that we have been going 
eleven miles an hour against the turbid river, which is of the 
same appearance as it was below, the same banks, bends, 
driftwood and trees. 

Beyond the levees there were occasionally large clearings 
and plantations of corn and cane, of which the former pre- 
dominated. The houses of the planters were not so large 
or so good as those on the lower banks. Large timber 
rafts, navigated by a couple of men, who stood in the shade 
of a couple of upright boards, were encountered at long in- 
tervals. The river was otherwise dead. White egrets and 
blue herons rose from the marshes where the banks had 
been bored through by crayfish, or crevasses had been 
formed by the waters. The fields were not much more 
lively, but at every landing the whites who came down were 
in some sort of uniform, and a few negroes were in attend- 
ance to take in or deliver goods. There were two blacks 
on board in irons — captured runaways — and very misera- 
ble they looked at the thought of being restored to the 
bosom of the patriarchal family from which they had, no 
doubt, so prodigally eloped. I feared the fatted calf-skin 



168 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 

would not be applied to their backs. The river is about 
half a mile wide here and is upward of one hundred feet 
deep. The planters' houses in groves of pecan and magno- 
lias, with verandah and belvedere, became more frequent 
as the steamer approached Baton Rouge, already visible 
in the distance over a high bank or bluff on the right-hand 
side. 

Before noon the steamer hauled alongside a stationary- 
hulk, which once " walked the waters " by the aid of ma- 
chinery, but which was now used as a floating hotel, depot, 
and storehouse — three hundred and fifteen feet long, and 
fully thirty feet on the upper deck above the level of the 
river. Here were my quarters till the boat for Natchez 
should arrive. The proprietor was somewhat excited on 
my arrival because my servants was away. " Where have 

you been, you ? " " Away to buy de newspaper, 

Massa." " For who, you ? *' " Me buy 'em for no 

one, Massa ; me sell 'um agin, Massa." " See now, you 

, if ever you goes aboard to meddle with newspapers, 

I'm but I'll kill you, mind that ! " Baton Rouge is 

the capital of the State of Louisiana, and the State House is 
a quaint and very new example of bad taste. The Deaf and 
Dumb Asylum near it is in a much better style. It was 
my intention to visit the State Prison and Penitentiary, but 
the day was too hot, and the distance too great, and so I 
dined at the oddest little Creole restaurant, with the fun- 
niest old hostess and the strangest company in the world. 
On returning to the boat hotel, Mr. Conrad, one of the 
citizens of the place, and Mr. W. Avery, a Judge of the 
Court, were good enough to call to invite me to visit them, 
but I was obliged to decline. The old gentlemen were 
both nt^mbers of the Home Guard, and drilled assiduously 
every evening. Of the one thousand three hundred voters 
at Baton Rouge, more than seven hundred and fifty are al- 
ready off to the wars, and another company is being formed 
to follow them. Mr. Conrad has three sons in the field al- 
ready. The Wditer who served our drinks in the bar wore a 
uniform, and his musket lay in the corner among the brandy 
bottles. At night a patriotic meeting of citizen soldiery 
took place in the bow, in which song and whiskey had much 
to do, so that sleep was difficult ; but at seven o'clock on 
Wednesd^iy morning the Mary T. came alongside, and soon 
afterward bore me on to Natchez through scenery which 
became wilder and less cultivated as she got upward. Of 



THE CIVIL WAB IN AMERICA. 169 

the one thousand five hundred steamers on the river not a 
tithe are now in employment, and the owners are in a bad 
way. It was late at night when the steamer arrived at 
Natchez, and next morning early I took shelter in another 
engineless steamer, which was thought to be an hotel by its 
owners. Old negress on board, however, said, " There was 
nothing for breakfast ; go to Curry's on shore." Walk up 
hill to Curry's — a bar-room, a waiter and flies. " Can I 
have any breakfast ? " "No, Sir-ree ; it's over half an hour 
ago." " Nothing to eat at all ? " " No, Sir." Can I get 
something anywhere else? " " I guess not." It had been 
my belief that a man with money in his pocket could not 
starve in any country soi-disant civilized life. Exceptions 
prove rules, but they are disagreeable things. I chewed the 
cud of fancy faute de mieux, and became the centre of at- 
traction to citizens, from whose conversation I learned that 
this was " Jeff. Davis's fast day." Observed one, " It 
quite puts me in mind of Sunday : all the stores closed." 
Said another, " We'll soon have Sunday every day, then, 
for I 'spect it won't be worth while for most shops to keep 
open any longer." Natchez, a place of much trade and cot- 
ton export in the season, is now as dull — let us say as 
Harwich without a regatta. But it is ultra-Secessionist, 
nil ohstante. My hunger was assuaged by a friend who 
drove me up to his comfortable mansion through a country 
not unlike the wooded parts of Sussex, abounding in fine 
trees, and in the only lawns and park-like fields I have yet 
seen in America. In the evening, after dinner, my host 
drove me over to visit a small encampment under a wealthy 
planter, who has raised, equipped, and armed his company 
at his own expense. 

We were obliged to get out at a narrow lane and walk 
toward the encampment on foot ; a sentry stopped us, and 
we observed that there was a semblance of military method 
in the camp. The captain was walking up and down in the 
verandah of the poor, deserted hut for which he had aban- 
doned his splendid home. A Book of Tactics (Hardee's) — 
which is, in part, a translation of the French Manual — lay 
on the table. Our friend was full of fight, and said he 
would give all he had in the world to the cause. But the 
day before, and a party of horse, composed of sixty gentle- 
men in the district, with from £20,000 to £50,000 each, 
had started for the war in Virginia. Everything to be seen 
or heard testifies to the great zeal and resolution with which 
15 



170 THE CIYIL WAK IN AMERICA. 

the South have entered upon the quarrel. But they hold 
the power of the United States and the loyalty of the North 
to the Union at far too cheap a rate. Next day was passed 
in a delightful drive through cotton fields, Indian corn, and 
undulating woodlands, amid which were some charming re- 
sidences. I crossed the river at Natchez, and saw one fine 
plantation in which the corn, however, was by no means so 
fine as I have often seen. The cotton looks well, and some 
had already burst into flower — bloom, as it is called — 
which had turned to a flagrant pink, and seemed saucily 
conscious that its boll would play an important part in the 
world. In this part of Mississippi the Secessionist feeling 
was not so overpowering at first as it has been since the ma- 
jority declared itself, but the expression of feeling is now 
all one way. The rage of Southern sentiment is to me inex- 
plicable, making every allowance for Southern exaggeration. 
It is sudden, hot, and apparently causeless as summer 
lightning. From every place I touched at along the Missis- 
sippi, a large proportion of the population has gone forth to 
fight, or is preparing to do so. The whispers which rise 
through the storm are few and feeble. Some there are who 
sigh for the peace and happiness they have seen in England. 
But they cannot seek those things ; they must look after 
their property. Each man maddens his neighbor by despe- 
rate resolves, and threats, and vows. Their faith is in Jef- 
ferson Davis's strength, and in the necessities and weakness 
of France and England. The inhabitants of the tracts 
which lie on the banks of the Mississippi, and on the inland 
regions hereabout, ought to be, in the natural order of 
things, a people almost nomadic, living by the chase and by 
a sparse agriculture, in the freedom which tempted their 
ancestors to leave Europe. But the Old World has been 
working for them. All its trials have been theirs ; the 
fruits of its experience, its labors, its research, its discove- 
ries, are theirs. Steam has enabled them to turn their 
rivers into highways, to open primeval forests to the light of 
day and to man. All these, however, would have availed 
them little had not the demands of manufacture abroad, and 
the increasing luxury and population of the North and West 
at home, enabled them to find in these swamps and uplands 
sources of wealth richer and more certain than all the gold 
mines of the world. But there must be gnomes to work 
those mines. Slavery was an institution ready to their 
hands. In its development there lay every material means 



THE CIYIL WAE. IN AMERICA. 171 

for securing the prosperity which Manchester opened to 
them, and in supplying their own countrymen with sugar. 
The small, struggling, deeply mortgaged proprietors of 
swamp and forest set their negroes to work to raise levees, 
to cut down trees, to plant and sow. As' the negro became 
valuable by his produce, the Irish emigrant took his place in 
the severer labors of the plantation, and ditched and dug, 
and cut into the waste land. Cotton at ten cents a pound 
gave a nugget in every boll. Land could be had for a few 
dollars an acre. Negroes were cheap in proportion. Men 
who made a few thousand dollars, invested them in more 
negroes and more land, and borrowed as much again for the 
same purpose. TIjey waxed fat and rich — there seemed 
no bounds to their fortune. But threatening voices came 
from the North — the echoes of the sentiments of the civil- 
ized world repenting of its evil pierced their ears, and they 
found their feet were of clay, and that they were nodding to 
their fall in the midst of their power. Ruin inevitable 
awaited them if they did not shut out these sounds and stop 
the fatal utterances. The issue is to them one of life and 
death. Whoever raises it hereafter, if it be not decided 
now, must expect to meet the deadly animosity which is 
displayed toward the North. The success of the South — if 
it can succeed — must lead to complications and results in 
other parts of the world for which neither it nor Europe is 
now prepared. Of one thing there can be no doubt — a 
Slave State cannot long exist without a slave-trade. The 
poor whites who will have won the fight will demand their 
share of the spoils. The land is abundant, and all that is 
wanted to give them fortunes is a supply of slaves. They 
will have them in spite of their masters, unless a stronger 
power prevents the accomplishment of their wishes. 



LETTER XIV. 

Cairo, 111., June 20, 1861. 

My last letter was dated from Natchez, but it will prob- 
ably accompany this communication, as there are no mails 
now between the North and the South, or vice versa. 
Tolerably confident in my calculations that nothing of much 
importance could take place in the field till some time after 



172 THE CITIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

I had readied my ppst, it appeared to me desirable to see 
as much of the South as I could, and to form an estimate of 
the strength of the Confederation, although it could not be 
done at this time of the year without considerable inconve- 
nience, arising from the heat, which renders it almost im- 
possible to write in the day, and from the mosquitoes, which 
come out when the sun goes down, and raise a blister at 
every stroke of the pen. * On several days lately the ther- 
mometer has risen to ninety-eight degrees — on one day to 
one hundred and five degrees — in the shade. 

On Friday evening, June 14, I started from Natchez for 
Vicksburg on board the steamer General Quitman, up the 
Mississippi. These long yellow rivers are very fine for 
patriots to talk about, for poets to write about, for buffalo 
fish to live in, and for steamers to navigate when there are 
no snags, but I confess the Father of Waters is extremely 
tiresome. Even the good cheer and the comfort of the 
General Quitman could not reconcile me to the eternal 
beating of steam drums, blowing whistles, bumpings at 
landings, and the general oppression of levees, clearings, 
and plantations, which marked the course of the river, and 
I was not sorry next morning when Vicksburg came in 
sight on the left bank of the giant stream — a city on a hill, 
not very large, besteepled, becupolaed, large-hoteled. 
Here lives a man who has been the pioneer of hotels in the 
West, and who has now established himself in a big cara- 
vanserai, which he rules in a curious fashion. M'Makin 
has, he tells us, been rendered famous by Sir Charles Lyell. 
The large dining room — a stall, a manger, as a friend of 
mine called it . — is filled with small tables covered with 
particolored cloths. At the end is a long deal table, heavy 
with dishes of meat and vegetables, presided over by ne- 
gresses and gentlemen of uncertain hue. In the centre of 
the room stood my host, shouting out at the top of his voice 
the names of the joints, and recommending his guests to 
particular dishes, very much as the chronicler tells us was 
the wont of the taverners in old London. Many little 
negroes ran about in attendance, driven hither and thither 
by the command of their white Soulouque — white-teethed, 
pensive-eyed, but sad as memory. " Are you happy here ! " 
asked I of one of them who stood by my chair. He looked 
uneasy and frightened. " Why don't you answer ? " " I'se 
feared to tell dat to massa." " Why, your master is kind 
to you ? " " Berry good man, sir, when he not angry wid 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 173 

me ! " And the little fellow's eyes filled with tears at some 
recollection which pained him. I asked no more. Vicks- 
burg is Secessionist. There were hundreds of soldiers 
in the streets, many in the hotel, and my host said 
some hundreds of Irish had gone off to the wars, to fight 
for the good cause. If Mr. O'Connell were alive, he would 
surely be pained to see the course taken by so many of his 
countrymen on this question. After dinner I was invited 
to attend a meeting of some of the citizens at the railway 
station, where the time passed very agreeably till four 
o'clock, when the train started for Jackson, the capital of 
Mississippi ; and after a passage of two hours through a 
poor, clay country, seared with water-courses and gullies, 
with scanty crops of Indian corn and very backward cotton, 
we were deposited in that city. It must be called a City. 
It is the State capital, but otherwise there is no reason why, 
in strict nomenclature, it should be designated by any such 
' title. It is in the usual style of the " cities " which spring 
up in the course of a few years amid the stumps of half- 
cleared fields in the wilderness — wooden houses, stores 
kept by Germans, French, Irish, Italians ; a large hotel 
swarming with people, with a noisy billiard-room and a 
noisier bar, the arena and the cause of " difficulties ; " 
wooden houses, with portentous and pretentious white por- 
ticoes, and pillars of all the Grecian orders : a cupola or two, 
and two or three steeples, too large for the feeble bodies 
beneath — hydrocephalic architecture ; a State house, look- 
ing well at a distance, ragged, dirty, and mean within ; 
groups of idlers in front of " Exchange," where the business 
transacted consists of a barter between money or credit and 
" drinks " of various stimulants ; a secluded telegraph 
office round a corner ; a forward newspaper office in the street, 
and a population of negroes shuffling through the thick 
dust which forms the streets. I called on Mr. Pettus, the 
Governor of the State of Mississippi, according to invita- 
tion, and found him in the State House in a very poor- 
room, with broken windows and ragged carpets and dilapi- 
dated furniture. He is a grim, silent man, tobacco-ruminant, 
abrupt-speeched, firmly believing that the state of society 
in which he exists, wherein there are monthly foul murders 
perpetrated at the very seat of Government, is the most free 
and civilized in the world. He is easy of access to all, and 
men sauntered in and out of his office just as they would walk 
into a public house. Once on a time, indeed, the Governor 
15* 



174 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEEICA. 

was a deer hunter in the forest, and lived far away from the 
haunts of men, and he is proud of the fact. He is a strenu- 
ous Seceder, and has done high-handed things in his way — 
simple apparently, honest probably, fierce certainly — and 
he lives, while he is Governor, on his salary of '$4,000 a year 
in the house provided for him by the State. There was not 
much to say on either side. I can answer for one. Next 
day being Sunday I remained at rest in the house of a friend 
listening to local stories — not couleur de rose, but of a 
deeper tint — blood-red — how such a man shot another, 
and was afterwards stabbed by a third ; how this fellow 
and his friends hunted down in broad day and murdered 
one obnoxious to them — tale after tale such as I have 
heard through the South and seen daily narratives of in the 
papers. Aceldama ! No security for life ! Property is 
quite safe. Its proprietor is in imminent danger, were it 
only from stray bullets when he turns a corner. The " bar," 
the " drink," the savage practice of walking about with* 
pistol and poniard — ungovernable passions ungoverned 
because there is no law to punish the deeds to which they 
lead — these are the causes of acts which would not be 
tolerated in the worst days of Corsican vendette, and which 
must be put down, or the countries in which they are un- 
punished will become as barbarous as jungles of wild beasts. 
In the evening I started by railroad for the city of Memphis, 
in Mississippi. There was a sleeping car on the train, but 
the flying bug and the creature less volatile, more pungent 
and persistent, which bears its name, murdered sleep, and 
when Monday morning came I was glad to arise and get 
into one of the carriages, although it was full of noisy 
soldiers bound to the camp at Corinth, in the State of Mis- 
sissippi, who had been drinking whiskey all night, and were 
now screaming for water and howling like demons. At 
Holly Spring, where a rude breakfast awaited us, the war- 
riors got out on the top of the carriages and performed a 
war dance to the music of their band, which was highly 
creditable to the carriage-maker's workmanship. Along the 
road at all the settlements and clearings the white people 
cheered, and the women waved white things, and Secession 
flags floated. There is no doubt of the state of feeling in 
this part of the country ; and yet it does not look much 
worth fighting for — an arid soil, dry water-courses, clay 
ravines, light crops. Perhaps it will be better a month 
hence, and negroes may make it pay. There were many in 



THE CIVIIi WAR IN AMERICA. 175 

the fields, and it struck me they looked better than those 
who work in gangs on the larger and richer plantations. 
Among our passengers were gentlemen from Texas going 
to Richmond to offer services to Mr. Davis. They declared 
the feeling in their State was almost without exception in 
favor of Secession. It is as astonishing how positive all 
these people are that England is in -absolute dependence on 
cotton for her national existence. They are at once savage 
and childish. If England does not recognize the Southern 
Confederacy pretty quick, they will pass a resolution not to 
let her have any cotton, except, &c. Suppose England 
does ever recognize a Confederation based on the principles 
of the South, what gurantee is there that in her absolute 
dependence, if it exists, similar coercive steps may not be 
taken against her ? " Oh ! we shall be friends, you know ; " 
and so on. 

On the train before us there had just passed on a company 
armed with large bowie-knives and rifled pistols, who called 
themselves the " Toothpick Company." They carried a 
coffin along with them, on which was a plate with " Abe 
Lincoln " inscribed on it, and they amused themselves with 
the childish conceit of telling the people as they went along 
that " they were bound " to bring his body back in it. At 
Grand Junction Station the troops got out andVere mustered 
preparatory to their transfer to a train for Richmond, in 
Virginia. The first company, about seventy strong, consist-^ 
ed exclusively of Irish, who were armed with rifles without 
bayonets. The second consisted of fifty-sixth Irish, armed 
mostly with muskets ; the third were of Americans, who 
were well uniformed, but had no arms with them. The 
fourth, clad in green, were nearly all Irish ; they wore all 
sorts of clothing, and had no pretensions to be regarded as 
disciplined soldiers. I am led to believe that the great 
number of Irish who have enlisted for service indicates a 
total suspension of all the works on which they are ordi- 
narily engaged in the South. They were not very orderly. 
" Fix bayonets," elicited a wonderful amount of controversy 
in the ranks. " Whar are yer dhrivin to ? " " Sullivan, 
don't yer hear we're to fix beenits." *' Ayse the strap of 
mee baynit, sargint, jewel ! " " If ye prod me wid that 
agin, I'll let dayloite into ye." Officer, reading muster — 
" No. 23, James Phelan." No reply. Voice from the 
ranks — " Faith Phelan' s gone ; sure he wint at the last 
dipot." Old men and boys were mixed together, but the 



176 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

mass of the rank and file were strong, full-grown men. In 
one of the carriages were some women dressed as " vivan- 
dieres," minus the coquet air and the trousers and boots of 
those ladies. They looked sad, sorry, dirty, and foolish. 
There was a great want of water along the line, and the 
dust and heat were very great and disagreeable. When 
they have to march many of the men will break down, 
owing to bad shoes and the weight of clothes and trash of 
various kinds they sling on their shoulders. They moved 
off amid much whooping, and our journey was continued 
through a country in which the railroad engineer had made 
the only opening for miles at a time. When a clearing 
was reached, however, there were signs that the soil was 
not without richness, and all the wheat was already cut and 
in sheaf. The passengers said it was fine and early, and 
that it averaged from forty to sixty bushels to the acre 
(more than it looked). Very little ground here is under 
cotton. It was past one o'clock on Monday when the train 
reached Memphis, in Tennessee, which is situated on a high 
blufi" overhanging the Mississippi. Here is one of the 
strategic positions of the Confederates. It is now occupied 
by a force of the Tennesseeans, which is commanded by 
Major-General Pillow, whom I found quartered in Gayoso 
House, a large hotel, named after one of the old Spanish 
rulers here, and as he was just starting to inspect his bat- 
teries and the camp at Randolph, sixty odd miles higher up 
the river, I could not resist his pressing invitations, tired as 
I was, to accompany him and his staff on board the Ingo- 
mar, to see what they were really like. First we visited the 
bluff on the edge of which is constructed a breastwork of 
cotton bales, which no infantry could get at, and which 
would offer no resistance to vertical and but little to hori- 
zontal fire. It is placed so close to the edge of the blufi" at 
various places that shell and shot would knock away the 
bank from under it. The river rolls below deep and strong, 
and across the roads or water-courses leading to it are feeble 
barricades of plank, which a howitzer would shiver to pieces 
in a few rounds. Higher up the bank, on a commanding 
plateau, there is a breastwork and parapet, within which 
are six guns, and the General informed me he intended to 
mount thirteen guns at this part of the river which would 
certainly prove very formidable to such steamers as they 
had on these waters, if any attempt were made to move 
from Cairo. 



THE Civil, WAR IN AMERICA. 177 

In the course of tlie day I was introduced to exactly 
seventeen colonels and one captain. My happiness was 
further increased by an introduction to a youth of some 
twenty-three years of age, with tender feet if I may judge 
from prunella slippers, dressed in a green cutaway, jean pants, 
and a tremendous sombrero with a plume of ostrich feathers, 
and gold tassels looped at the side, who had the air and 
look of an apothecary's errand boy. This was " General" 
Maggies (let us say) of Arkansas. Freighted deeply with 
the brave, the Ingomar started for her voyage, and we came 
alongside the bank at Chickasaw Bluffs, too late to visit the 
camp, as it was near midnight before we arrived. I forgot 
to say that a large number of steamers were lying at 
Memphis, which had been seized by General Pillow, and he 
has forbidden all traffic in boats to Cairo. Passengers n»ust 
go round by rail to Columbus. 

June 18. — I have just returned from a visit to the works 
and batteries at the intrenched camp at Randolph's Point, 
sixty miles above Memphis, by which it is intended to de- 
stroy any flotilla coming down the river from Cairo, and to 
oppose any force coming by land to cover its flank, and 
clear the left bank of the Mississippi. The Ingomar is 
lying under the rugged bank, or bluff, about 150 feet high, 
which recedes in rugged tumuli and watercourses filled with 
brushwood from the margin of the river, some half mile up and 
down the stream at this point, and Brigadier-General Pillow 
is still riding round his well-beloved earthworks and his 
quaint battalions, while I, anxious to make the most of my 
time now that I am fairly on the run for my base of opera- 
tions, have come on board, and am now writing in the cabin, 
a long-roofed room, with berths on each side, which runs 
from stem to stern of the American boats over the main 
deck. This saloon presents a curious scene. Over the bow, 
at one side, there is an office for the sale of tickets, now 
destitute of business, for the Ingomar belongs to the State 
of Tennessee ; at the other side is a bar, where thirsty souls, 
who have hastened on board from the camp for a julep, a 
smash, or a cocktail, learn with disgust that the only article 
to be had is fine Mississippi water with ice in it. Lying on 
the deck in all attitudes are numbers of men asleep, whose 
plumed felt hats are the only indications that they are 
soldiers, except in the rare case of those who have rude 
uniforms, and buttons and stripes of colored cloth on the 



178 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 

legs of their pantaloons. A sentry is sitting on a chair 
smoking a cigar. He is on guard over the after part of the 
deck, called the ladies' saloon, and sacred to the General 
and his staff and attendants. He is a tall, good-looking 
young fellow, in a gray flannel shirt, a black wide-awake, 
gray trowsers, fastened by a belt, on which is a brass buckle 
incribed " U. S." His rifle is an Enfield, and the bayonet- 
sheath is fastened to the belt by a thong of leather. That 
youthful patriot is intent on the ups and downs of fortune 
as exemplified in the pleasing game of euchre, or euker, 
which is exercising the faculties of several of his comrades, 
who, in their shirt-sleeves, are employing the finest faculties 
of their nature in that national institution ; but he is not 
indifi'erent to his duties, and he forbids your correspondent's 
entrance until he has explained what he wants, and who he 
is, and the second is more easy to do than the first. The 
sentry tells his captain, who is an euchreist, that " It's all 
right," and resumes his seat and his cigar, and the work 
goes bravely on. Indeed, it went on last night at the same 
table, which is within a few yards of the General's chair ; 
and now that I have got a scrap of paper and a moment of 
quiet, let me say what I have to say of this position, and 
of what I saw — pleasant things they would be to the Fed- 
eralist General up at Cairo, if he could hear them in time, 
unless he is as little prepared as his antagonist. On looking 
out of my cabin this morning, I saw the high and rugged 
bluff' of which I have spoken on the left bank of the river. 
A few ridge-poled tents, pitched under the shade of some 
trees, on a small spur of the slope, was the only indication 
immediately visible of a martial character. But a close 
inspection in front enabled me to detect two earthworks 
mounted with guns, on the side of the bank, considerably 
higher than the river, and three heavy guns, possibly 42- 
pounders, lay in the dust close to the landing-place, with 
very rude carriages and bullock-poles to carry them to the 
batteries. A few men, ten or twelve in number, were dig- 
ging at an encampment on the face of the slope. Others 
were lounging about the beach, and others, under the same 
infatuation as that which makes little boys disport in the 
Thames under the notion that they are washing themselves, 
were bathing in the Mississippi. A dusty cart track wound 
up to the brow of the bluff", and there disappeared. Some 
carts toiled up and down between the boat and the crest 
of the hill. We went on shore. There was no ostenta- 



THE CITIL WAR IN AMEKICA. 179 

tion of any kind about the reception of the General and 
his staff. A few horses were waiting impatiently in the 
sun, for the flies will have their way, and heavy men are 
not so unbearable as small mosquitoes. With a cloud of col- 
onels — one late United Statesman, who was readily distin- 
guishable by his air from the volunteers — the General pro- 
ceded to visit his batteries and his men. The first work 
inspected was a plain parapet of earth, placed some fifty feet 
above the river, and protected very slightly by tAvo small 
flanking parapets. Six guns, 32-pounders, and howitzers of 
an old pattern were mounted en iarhette, without any trav- 
erses whatever. The carriages rested on rough platforms, and 
the wheels ran on a traversing semicircle of plank, as the 
iron rails were not yet ready. The gunners, a plain looking 
body of men, very like railway laborers and mechanics 
without uniform, were engaged at drill. It was neither 
quick nor good work — about equal to the average of a 
squad after a couple of days' exercise; but the men 
worked earnestly, and I have no doubt, if the Federalists 
give them time, they will prove artillerymen in the end. 
The General ordered practice to be made with round shot. 
After some delay, a kind of hybrid ship's carronade was 
loaded. The target was a tree, about two thousand five 
hundred yards distant, I was told. It appeared to me about 
one thousand seven hundred yards ofi*. Every one was de- 
sirous of seeing the shot ; but we were at the wrong side 
for the wind, and I ventured to say so. However, the Gen- 
eral thought and said otherwise. The word " Fire ! " was 
given. Alas? the friction-tube would not explode. It was 
one of a new sort, which the Tennesseeans are trying their 
'prentice hand a't. A second ball answered better. The 
gun went ofl", but where the ball went to no one could say, 
as the smoke came into our eyes. The party moved to 
windward, and, after another fuse had missed, the gun was 
again discharged at some five degrees elevation, and the 
shot fell in good line, two hundred yards short of the target, 
and did not riochet. Gun No. 2 was then discharged, and 
ofl" went the ball, at no particular mark, down the river ; but 
if it did go off", so did the gun also," for it gave a frantic leap 
and j umped with the carriage ofi" the platform ; nor was 
this wonderful, for it was an oldfashioned chamber carron- 
ade or howitzer, which had been loaded with a full charge, 
and solid shot enough to make it burst with indignation. 
Turning from this battery, we visited another nearer the 



180 THE Civil; WAK IN AMERICA. 

water, with four guns (32-pounders), whicli were well placed 
to sweep the channel with greater chance of riochet ; and 
higher on the bank, toward a high peak commanding the 
Mississippi, here about seven hundred yards broad, and a 
small confluent which runs into it, was another battery of 
two guns, with a very great command, but only fit for shell, 
as the fire must be plunging. All these batteries were very 
ill constructed, and in only one was the magazine under 
decent cover. In the first it was in rear of the battery, up 
the hill behind it. The parapets were of sand or soft earth, 
unprovided with merlons. The last had a few sand-bags 
between the guns. Riding up a steep road, we came to the 
camps of the men on the wooded and undulating plateau 
over the river, which is broken by water-courses into ravines 
covered with brushwood and forest trees. For five weeks 
the Tennessee troops under General Pillow, who is at the 
head of the forces of the State, have been working at a 
series of curious intrenchments which are supposed to re- 
present an intrenched camp, and which look like an assem- 
blage of mud beaver dams. In a word, they are so com- 
plicated that they would prove exceedingly troublesome to 
the troops engaged in their defence, and it would require 
very steady, experienced regulars to man them so as to give 
proper support to each other. The maze of breastworks, of 
flanking parapets, of parapets for field-pieces, is overdone. 
Several of them might prove useful to an attacking force. 
In some places the wood was cut down in front, so as to 
form a formidable natural abattis ; but generally here, as 
in the batteries below, timber and brushwood were left un- 
cut up to easy musket shot of the works, so as to screen an 
advance of riflemen, and to expose the defending force to 
considerable annoyance. In small camps of fifteen or twenty 
tents each the Tennessee troops were scattered, for health 
sake, over the plateau, and on the level ground a few com- 
panies were engaged at drill. The men were dressed and 
looked like laboring people — small farmers, mechanics, with 
some small, undersized lads. The majority were in their 
shirt sleeves, and the awkwardness with which they handled 
their arms showed that, however good they might be as 
shots, they were by no means proficients in manual exercise. 
Indeed, they could not be, as they have been only five 
weeks in the service of the State called out in anticipa- 
tion of the Secession vote, and since then they have 
been employed by General Pillow on his fortifications. 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 181 

They have complained more than once of their hard work, 
particularly when it was accompanied by hard fare, and one 
end of General Pillow's visit, was to inform them that they 
would soon be relieved from their labors by negroes and 
hired laborers. Their tents, small ridge-poles, are very bad, 
but suited, perhaps, to the transport. Each contains six 
men. I could get no accurate account of their rations even 
from the Quartermaster-General, and Commissary-General 
there was none present ; but I was told that they had " a 
sufficiency — from f lb. to 1^- lb. of meat, of bread, of sugar, 
coffee, and rice, daily." Neither spirits nor tobacco is served 
out to these terrible chewers and not unaccomplished drink- 
ers. Their pay '* will be " the same as in the United States 
Army or the Confederate States Army — probably paid in 
the circulating medium of the latter. Seven or eight hun- 
dred men were formed in line for inspection. There were 
few of the soldiers in any kind of uniform, and such uni- 
forms as I saw were in very bad taste, and consisted of gaudy 
facings and stripes on very strange garments. They were 
armed with old-pattern percussion muskets, and their ammu- 
nition pouches were of diverse sorts. Shoes often bad, knap- 
sacks scarce, head-pieces of every kind of shape — badges 
worked on the front or sides, tinsel in much request. Every 
man had a tin water-flask and a blanket. The General ad- 
dressed the men, who were in line two deep (many of them 
unmistakably Irishmen), and said what Generals usually say 
on such occasions — compliments for the past, encouragement 
for the future. " When the hour of danger comes I will be 
with you." They did not seem to care much whether he was 
or not ; and, indeed. General Pillow, in a round hat, dusty 
black frock coat, and ordinary " unstriped " trowsers, did 
not look like one who could give any great material acces- 
sion to the physical means of resistance, although he is a 
very energetic man. The Major-General, in fact, is an 
attorney-at-law, or has been so, and was partner with Mr. 
Polk, who, probably from some of the reasons which deter- 
mine the actions of partners to each other, sent Mr. Pillow 
to the Mexican war, where he nearly lost him, owing to 
severe wounds received in action. The General has made 
his intrenchments as if he were framing an indictment. 
There is not a flaw for an enemy to get through, but he has 
bound up his own men in inexorable lines also. At one of 
the works a proof of the freedom of "citizen soldiery" was 
afforded in a little hilarity on the part of one of the privates. 
16 



182 THE ClYIL WAK IN AMERICA. 

The men had lined the parapet, and had listened to the 
pleasant assurances of their commander, that they would 
knock off the shovel and the hoe very soon, and be replaced 
by the eternal gentlemen of color. '' Three cheers for Gen- 
eral Pillow" were called for, and were responded to by the 
whooping and screeching sounds that pass muster in this 
part of the world for cheers. As they ended, a stentorian 
voice shouted out, "Who Ccires for General Pillow?" and, 
as no one answered, it might be unfairly inferred that gallant 
officer was not the object of the favor or solicitude of his 
troops ; probably a temporary unpopularity connected with 
the hard work, found expression in the daring question. 

Randolph's Point is, no doubt, a very strong position. 
The edges of the plateau command the rear of the batteries 
below ; the ravines in the bluff would give cover to a large 
force of riflemen, who could render the batteries untenable 
if taken from the river face, unless the camp in their rear on 
the top of the plateau was carried. Great loss of life, and 
probable failure, would result from any attack on the works 
from the river merely. But a flotilla might get past the 
guns without any serious loss in the present state of their 
service and equipment ; and there is nothing I saw. to pre- 
vent the landing of a force on the banks of the river, which, 
with a combined action on the part of an adequate force of 
gunboats, could carry the position. As the river falls the 
round-shot fire from the guns will be even less efi"ective. 
The General is providing water for the camps by means of 
large cisterns dug in the ground, which will be filled with 
water from the river by steam power. The officers of the 
army of Tennessee with whom 1 spoke were plain, farmerly 
planters, merchants, and lawyers ; and the heads of the de- 
partment were in no respect better than their inferiors by 
reason of any military acquirements, but were shrewd, en- 
ergetic, common-sense men. The officer in command of the 
works, however, understood his business, apparently, and 
was well supported by the artillery officer. There were, I 
was told, eight pieces of field artillery disposable for the 
defence of the camp. 

Having returned to the steamer, the party proceeded up 
the river to another small camp in defence of a battery of 
four guns, or rather of a small parallelogram of soft sand 
covering a man a little higher than the knee, with four guns 
mounted in it on the river face. No communication exists 
through the woods between the two camps, which must be 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 183 

six or seven miles apart. The force stationed here was 
composed principally of gentlemen. They were all in uni- 
form. A detachment worked one of the guns, which the 
General wished to see fired with round shot. In five or six 
minutes after the order was given the gun was loaded, and 
the word given, *' Fire." The gunner palled the lanyard 
hard, but the tube did not explode. Another was tried. A 
strong jerk pulled it out bent and incombustible. A third 
was inserted, which came out broken. The fourth time was 
the charm, and the bail was projected about 60 yards to the 
right, and 100 yards short of the mark — a stump, some 
1,200 yards distant, in the river. It must be remembered 
that there ure no disparts, tangents, or elevating screws to 
the guns ; the officer was obliged to lay it by the eye with 
a plain -chock of wood. The General explained that the 
friction tubes were the results of an experiment he was 
making to manufacture them ; but I agreed with one of the 
officers, who muttered in my ear, " The old linstock and 
portfire are a darned deal better." There were no shells, I 
could see, in the battery, and, on inquiry, I learned the fuses 
were made of wood at Memphis, and v/ere not considered 
by the officers at all trustworthy. Powder is so scarce that 
all salutes are inderdicted, except to the Governor of the 
State. In the two camps there were, I was informed, about 
4,000 men. My eyesight, so far as I went, confirmed me 
of the existence of some 1,800, but I did not visit all the 
outlying tents. On landing the band had played " God 
Save the Queen " and " Dixie's Land ; " on returning we 
had the " Marseillaise"" and the national anthem of the 
Southern Confederation ; and, by way of parenthesis, it may 
be added, if you do not already know the fact, that " Dixie's 
Land " is a synonym for Heaven. It appears that there was 
once a good planter, named " Dixie," who died at some pe- 
riod unknown, to the intense grief of -his animated property. 
They found expression for their sorrow in song, and con- 
soled themselves by clamoring in verse for their removal to 
the land to which Dixie had departed, and where probably 
the revered spirit would be greatly surprised to find himself 
in their company. Whether they were ill-treated after he 
died, and thus had reason to deplore his removal, or merely 
desired Heaven in the abstract, nothing known enables me 
to assert. But Dixie's Land is now generally taken to mean 
the Seceded States, where Mr. Dixie certainly is not at this 
present writing. The song and air are the composition of 



184 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

the organized African Association for the advancement of 
music and their own profit, which sings in New York, and 
it may be as well to add, that in all my tour in the South 
I heard little melody from lips black or white, and only once 
heard negroes singing in the fields. 

Several sick men were put on board the steamer, and were 
laid on mattresses on deck. I spoke to them, and found 
they were nearly all suiFering from diarrhoea, and that they 
had no medical attendance in camp. All the doctors went 
to fight, and the Medical Service of the Tennessee troops ia 
very defective. As I was going down the river 1 had some, 
interesting conversation with General Clark, who commands 
about 5,000 troops of the Confederate States, at present 
quartered in two camps at Tennessee on these points. He 
told me the Commissai'iat and the Medical Service had given 
him great annoyance, and confesses some desertions and 
courts-martial had occurred. Guard-mounting and its ac- 
cessory duties were performed in a most slovenly manner, 
and the German troops from the Southern parts were par- 
ticularly disorderly. It was late in the afternoon when I 
reached Memphis. I may mention, obiter, that the captain 
of the steamer, talking of arms, gave me a notion of the 
sense of security he felt on board his vessel. From under 
his pillow he pulled one of his two Derringer pistols, and 
out of his clothes-press he produced a long heavy rifle and 
a double gun, which was, he said, capital with ball and 
buckshot. 

June 19. — Up at 3 o'clock, A. M., to get ready for the 
train at 5, which will take me out of Dixie's Land to Cairo. 
If the owners of the old hostelries in the Egyptian city were 
at all like their Tennesseean fellow craftsmen in the upstart 
institution which takes its name, I wonder how Herodotus 
managed to pay his way. My sable attendant quite entered 
into our feelings, and was rewarded accordingly. At 5 A. M., 
covered with dust, contracted in a drive through the streets 
which seem " paved with waves of mud," to use the phrase 
of a Hibernian gentlemen connected with the baggage de- 
partment of the omnibus, " only the mud was all dust," to 
use my own, I started in the cars along with some Confed- 
erate officers and several bottles of whiskey, which at that 
early hour was considered by my unknown companions as a 
highly efficient prophylatic against the morning dews ; but 
it appeared that these dews are of such a deadly character 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 185 

that, in order to guard against their effects, one must become 
dead drunk. The same remedy, I am assured, is sovereign 
against rattlesnake bites. I can assure the friends of these 
gentlemen that they were amply fortified against any amount 
of dew or of rattlesnake poison before they got to the end 
of their whiskey, so great was the supply. By the Memphis 
papers it seems as if the institution of blood prevailed there 
as in New Orleans, for I read in my paper as I went along 
of two murders and one shooting as the incidents of the 
previous day, contributed by " the local." To contrast with 
this low state of social existence, there must be a high con- 
dition of moral feeling, for the journal I was reading con- 
tained a very elaborate article to show the wickedness of 
any one paying his debts, and of any State acknowledging 
its liabilities, which would constitute an invaluable vade 
mecum for Basinghall Street. At Humboldt, there was 
what w^as called a change of cars — a process that all the 
philosophy of the Baron could not have enabled him to en- 
dure without some loss of temper, for there was a whole 
Kosmos of Southern patriotism assembled at the station, 
burning with the fires of Liberty, and bent on going to the 
camp at Union City, forty-six miles away, where the Con- 
federate forces of Tennessee, aided by Mississippi regiments, 
are out under the greenwood tree. Their force was irresist- 
ible, particularly as there were numbers of relentless citi- 
zenesses — what the American papers call " quite a crowd " 
— as the advanced guard of the invading army. While the 
original occupants were being compressed or expelled by 
crinoline — that all-absorbing, defensive, and agressive arti- 
cle of feminine war reigns here in wide-spread, iron-bound 
circles — I took refuge on the platform, w^here I made, in 
an involuntary way, a good many acquaintances in this sort : 
*' Sir, my name is Jones — Judge Jones of Pumpkin County. 
I am happy to know you. Sir." We shake hands affection- 
ately. " Colonel," (Jones loquitur) " allow me to introduce 
you to my friend Mr. Scribble ! Colonel Maggs, Mr. Scrib- 
ble." The Colonel shakes hands, and immediately darts off 
to a circle of his friends, whom he introduces, and they each 
introduce some one else to me, and, finally, I am introduced 
to the engine-driver, who is really an acquaintance of value, 
for he is good enough to give me a seat on his engine, and 
the bell tolls, the steam-trumpet bellows, and we move from 
the station an hour behind time, and with twice the number 
of passengers the cars were meant to contain. Our engineer 
16* 



186 THE CIYIIi WAK IN AMEBICA. 

did his best to overcome his difficulties, and we mshed rap- 
idly, if not steadily, through a wilderness of forest and 
tangled brakes, through which the rail, without the smallest 
justification, performed curves and twists, indicative of a 
desire on the part of the engineer to consume the greatest 
amount of rail on the shortest extent of line. My compan- 
ion was a very intelligent Southern gentlemen, formerly 
editor of a newspaper. We talked of the crime of the 
country, of the brutal shootings and stabbings which dis- 
graced it He admitted their existence with regret, but he 
could advise and suggest no remedy. *' The rowdies have 
rushed in upon us, so that we can't master them." " Is the 
law powerless? " *'Well, Sir, you see these men got hold 
of those who should administer the law, or they are too 
powerful or too reckless to be kept down." *' That is a 
reign of terror — of mob-ruffianism! " " It don't hurt re- 
spectable people much, but I agree with you it must be put 
down." "When — how?" " Well, Sir, when things are 
settled we'll .just take the law into our own hands. Not a 
man shall have a vote unless he's American born, and by 
degrees we'll get rid of these men who disgrace us." " Are 
not many of your regiments composed of Germans and Irish 
— of foreigners, in fact ? " " Yes, Sir." I did not suggest 
to him the thought which rose in my mind, that these gen- 
tlemen, if successful, would be very little inclined to abandon 
their rights while they had arms in their hands, but it oc- 
curred to me as well that this would be rather a poor reward 
for the men who were engaged in establishing the Southern 
Confederacy. The attempt may fail, but assuredly I have 
heard it expressed too often to doubt that there is a deter- 
mination on the part of the leaders in the movement to take 
away the suffrage from the men whom they do not scruple 
to employ in fighting their battles. If they cut the throats 
of the enemy they will stifle their own sweet voices at the 
same time, or soon afterward — a capital recompense to 
their emigrant soldiers ! 

The portion of Tennessee traversed by the railroad is not 
very attractive, for it is nearly uncleared. In the sparse 
clearings were fields of Indian corn, growing amid black- 
ened stumps of trees and rude log shanties, and the white 
population which looked out on us was poorly housed, at 
least, if not badly clad. At last we reached Corinth. It 
would have been scarcely recognizable by Mummius — even 
if he had ruined his old handiwork over again. This proud- 



THE CIVIL WAK IN AMERICA. 187 

ly-named spot consisted apparently of a grog-shop in wood^ 
and three shanties of a similar material, with out-offices to 
match, and the Acro-Corinth was a grocery store, of which 
the proprietors had no doubt gone to the wars, as it was. 
shut up, and their names were suspiciously Milesian. But, 
if Corinth was not imposing, Troy, which we reached after 
a long run through a forest of virgin timber, was still sim- 
pler in architecture and general design. It was too new for 
" Troja fuit^' and the general " fixins " would scarcely au- 
thorize one to say to hope Troja fuerit. 

The Dardanian Towers were represented by a timber- 
house, and Helen the Second — whom we may take on this 
occasion to have been simulated by an old lady smoking a 
pipe, whom I saw in the verandah — could have set them 
on fire much more readily than did her interesting prototype 
ignite the City of Priam. The rest of the place and of the 
inhabitants, as I saw it and them, might be considered as 
an agglomerate of three or four sheds, a few log huts, a saw- 
mill, and some twenty negroes sitting on a log and looking 
at the train. From Troy the road led to a cypress swamp, 
over which the engines bustled, rattled, tumbled, and 
hopped at a perilous rate along a high trestlework, and 
at last we came to " Union City," which seemed to be 
formed by great aggregate meetings of discontented shav- 
ings which had been whiled into heaps out of the forest 
hard by. But here was the camp of the Confederates, which 
so many of our fellow-passengers were coming out into 
the wilderness to see. Their white tents and plank huts 
gleamed through the green of oak and elm, and hundreds 
of men came out to the platform to greet their friends, and 
to inquire for baskets, boxes, and hampers, which put me in 
mind of the Quartermaster's store at Balaklava. We have 
all heard of the unhappy medical officer who exhausted his 
resources to get up a large chest from that store to the camp, 
and who on opening it, in the hope of finding inside the art- 
icles he was most in need of, discovered that it contained an 
elegant assortment of wooden legs ; but he could not have 
been so much disgusted as a youthful warrior here who was 
handed a wicker-covered jar from the luggage van, which he 
" tapped " on the spot, expecting to find it full of Bourbon 
whiskey, or something equally good. He raised the ponder- 
ous vessel aloft, and took a long pull, to the envy of his 
comrades, and then spirting out the fluid, with a hideous 
face, exclaimed, *' D , &c. Why, if the old woman has 



188 THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 

not sent me sirup ! " Evidently no joke, for the crowd 
around him never laughed and gravely dispersed. 

It was fully two hours before the train got away from the 
camp, leaving a vast quantity of good things and many 
ladies, who had come on in the excursion train, behind them. 
There were about 6,600 men there, it was said — rude, big, 
rough fellows, with sprinklings of odd companies, composed 
of gentlemen of fortune exclusively. The soldiers who 
were only entitled to the name in virtue of their carrying 
arms, their duty, and possibly their fighting qualities, lay 
under the trees playing cards, cooking, smoking, or reading 
the papers ; but the camp was guarded by sentries, some of 
whom carried their firelocks under their arms like umbrellas, 
others by the muzzle with the butt over the shoulder ; one 
for ease, had stuck his, with the bayonet in the ground, up- 
right before him ; others laid their arms against the trees, 
and preferred a sitting to an upright posture. In front of 
one camp thexe were two brass fieldpieces, seemingly in good 
order. Many of the men had sporting rifles or plain muskets. 
There were several boys of fifteen and sixteen years of age 
among the men, who could scarcely carry their arms for a 
long day's march ; but the Tennessee and Mississippi infan- 
try were generally the materials of good soldiers. The 
camps were not regularly pitched, with one exception ; the 
tents were too close together ; the water is bad, and the 
result that a good deal of measles, fever, diarrhoea, and 
dysentery prevailed. One man who came on the train was 
a specimen of many of the classes which fill the ranks — a 
tall, very muscular, handsome man, with a hunter's eye, about 
thirty-five years of age, bi-awny-shouldered, brown-faced, 
black-bearded, hairy-handed ; he had once owned one hun- 
dred and ten negroes — equal, say, to £20,000 — but he 
had been a patriot, a lover of freedom, a fillibuster. First, 
he had gone off with Lopez to Cuba, where he was taken, 
put in prison, and included among the number who received 
grace ; next he had gone off with Walker to Nicaragua, but 
in his last expedition he fell into the hands of the enemy, 
and was only restored to liberty by the British officer who 
was afterward assaulted in New Orleans for the part he took 
in the afi'air. These little adventures had reduced his stock 
to five negroes, and to defend them he took up arms, and 
he looked like one who could use them. When he came 
from Nicaragua he weighed only one hundred and ten 
pounds — now he was over two hundred pounds — a splen- 



THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 189 

did betefauve; and, without wishing him harm, may I be 
permitted to congratulate American society on its chance of 
getting rid of a considerable number of those of whom he is 
a representative man. We learned incidentally that the 
district wherein these troops are quartered was distinguished 
by its attachment to the Union. By its last vote Tennessee 
proved that there are at least forty thousand voters in the 
State who are attached to the United States Government. 
At Columbus the passengers were transferred to a steamer, 
which in ah hour and a half made its way against the stream 
of the Mississippi to Cairo. There, in the clear light of the 
summer's eve, were floating the Stars and Stripes — the 
first time I had seen the flag, with the exception of a glimpse 
of it at Fort Pickens, for two months. Cairo is in Illinois, 
on the spur of land which is formed by the junction of the 
Ohio River with the Mississippi, and its name is probably 
well known to certain speculators in England, who believed 
in the fortunes of a place so appropriately named and situ- 
ated. Here is the camp of Illinois troops under General 
Prentiss, which watches the shores of the Missouri on the 
one hand, and of Kentucky on the other. Of them, and of 
what may be interesting to readers in England, I shall speak 
in my next letter. I find there is a general expression of 
satisfaction at the sentiments expressed by Lord John Rus- 
sell, in the speech which has just been made down here, and 
that the animosity excited by what a portion of the Ameri- 
can press called the hostility of the Foreign Minister to the 
United States has been considerably abated, although much 
has been done to fan the anger of the people into a flame, 
because England had acknowledged the Confederate States 
have limited belligerent rights. 



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